B ETHANY C. E. 
READING COURSES 



Hand-Book of Missions 



McLean 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. , Copyright So. 

'~H5 

UNiTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



CDe BetDany C. 6. l)ana-DooR Series : 

(J. Z. TYLER, General Editor.) 

CONSISTING OF A SERIES OF SMAI,!, 
BOOKS AI,ONG THE I^INES OF BIBI.E 
STUDY, THE STUDY OF MISSIONS, AND 
THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY AND 
PURPOSES OF THE DISCIPI^ES OF CHRIST; 
DESIGNED ESPECIAI,I,Y FOR THEIR 
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETIES, AND 
PREPARED UNDER THE APPROVAL OF 
THE GENERAI, CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY 
CONVENTION. .'. .*. .*. .-. .*. ,\ 



The Library 
OF Congress 

WASHINGTON 



FIRST SERIES : 



I. Bana-book for Bible Study 

BY 

J. W. McGARVEY, 

President of the College of the Bible in 
Kentucky University. 

II. Rana-book Concerning tbe Disciples 



B. B. TYLER. 

Author of the History of the Disciples of 

Christ in the American Church 

History Series. 



III. Band-book of missions 

BY 

A. McLEAN, 

Corresponding Secretary of the Foreign 
Christian Missionary Society. 



f IbanSsboof! Series for tbe 

asctbang C.ie. 'KeaDtng Course0 



l)and»Book of lllt$$ion$. 



/ 



BY 



A. MCLEAN, 



Corresponding Secretary of the Foreign 
Christian Missionary Society. 



WITH introduction BY 

GEORGE DARSIE 

LEADER OP THE STUDY OF MISSIONS IN THE 
BETHANY C. E. READING COURSES. 



m 



publfsbe^ b^ 

Ubc IReaMna Course Committee 

798 fRepublic Street 

Cleveland, ©bio 






^\ 



•/Y3 



Copyright, 1897, 
By J. Z. TYLER, Chairman. 



Printed by the 
Tulia A. Andrews Fund, 



Explanatory Note. 

The National Convention of the Disciples 
of Christ, held in Springfield, Illinois, 
October 16-23, 1896, adopted the following 
recommendations : 

*' I. That this convention approve the idea of 
adding, within certain limits, the educational 
feature to the Christian Endeavor Societies among 
us. This added educational feature shall include 
helps for the systematic reading of the Bible, a 
selected course of reading concerning missions in 
general, and our own missions in particular, and 
thorough instruction as to the origin, the prin- 
ciples, and the history of our own movement for 
the restoration of New Testament Christianity. 

2. That this convention approve of the pur- 
pose to provide a series of hand-books for our 
young people covering the field not already satis- 
factorily covered." 

In harmony with this action three courses 
of reading are being planned, and a hand- 
book, introductory to each course, has been 
prepared. This little volume is introduc- 
tory to the study of Missions. 

Each course of reading is under the 
direction of one specially qualified for that 
line. Herbert L. Willett is director of Bible 
study, Frederick D. Power is director of 
the study concerning the Disciples, and 
George Darsie is director of the study of 
Missions. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is God's purpose to save the world through 
the gospel of His Son. The task of executing that 
purpose has been entrusted to His Church on earth — 
the divine presence and co-working being alwa3^s un- 
derstood. Therefore the supreme duty of the Church 
is world-wide conquest in the name of the Lord. To 
aim at anything short of this would be disobedience 
to her Great Captain. To refuse participation in the 
efforts directed to this end would be to be unworthy 
a place in His mighty army. 

Missions mean simply the aggressiveness of the 
gospel. They measure the devotion of the Church 
to the sublime conception of saving the world. They 
tell the thrilling story of what has been done to 
realize that conception since the day that our 
Savior " sat down on the right hand of God, from 
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the 
footstool of his feet." 

The reader will not be surprised at the com- 
pleteness with which the survey of the modern mis- 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

sion field and of its achievments is given in this little 
volume, or at the amount and variety of missionary 
intelligence that is crowded into it, or at the intensely 
vital quality of these fascinating chapters, when he 
learns that the author has consecrated his time, 
talent, toil and strength to this great work for nearly 
a score of years, and that he returned but a few 
months ago from a tour of the world, undertaken to 
enlarge and perfect him in the information of which 
he gives to us so freely and forcibly in these pages. 

The specific design of this Handbook is of course 
the instruction of Kndeavor Societies in the great 
triumphs, growing greater year by year, of modern 
missions, of modern missions in general, among all 
religious bodies and in all parts of the immense 
world-field; of modern missions in particular, among 
the Disciples of Christ and in the various parts of the 
field they are striving to occupy. It is a most neces- 
sary ingredient in the religious education of our 
young people that they know of these, minutely and 
accurately, and that they know too of all the different 
missionary organizations among us, through which 
we are trying to occupy these fields, and to do our 
missionary work. For missionary knowledge is an 
essential condition of missionary zeal and liberality. 

This little book deals and can deal but in outlines. 
It is merely a preface to the inspiring pages of 
numerous missionary biographies, a key to open 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

before us the rich and ample stores of missionary 
literature — some hint of which we have in the brief 
list of books on missions given at the close of this 
volume. 

I shall confess myself greatly mistaken if 
this Handbook does not become a standard for easy 
reference among all our people, old as well as young, 
who desire information on the vital theme of 
Missions. 

George Darsie. 
Frankfort, Ky. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Definitions 13 

II. The Field 20 

III. Scriptural Basis of Missions 27 

IV. Scriptural Basis of Missions (cont'd) 33 

V. Scriptural Basis of Missions (concluded) 41 

VI. Missions in the Life of Christ 48 

VII. The Apostles and Missions 55 

VIII. Missions in the Life of Paul 62 

IX. Missions in the early Christian Ages 68 

X. Conversion of the Goths, Franks, etc 75 

XI. Conversion of the Teutons, etc 82 

XII. Four Centuries of Comparative Inaction 90 

XIII. Missions in the Present Century 99 

XIV. Home Missions 105 

XV. India and the Gospel 110 

XVI. China and the Gospel. 116 

XVII. Japan and Korea and the Gospel 122 

XVIII. Africa and the Gospel 127 

XIX. Turkey and Persia and the Gospel 132 

XX. South America and Mexico 138 

XXI. The Islands and the Gospel 143 

XXII. American Christian Missionary Society 149 

XXIII. Christian Woman's Board of Missions 155 

XXIV. Foreign Christian Missionary Society 159 

XXV. Church Extension Fund 166 

XXVI. Board of Negro Education 170 

XXVII. Board of Ministerial Relief 173 

XXVIII. Medical Missions 176 

XXIX. Women and Missions 183 

XXX. Open Doors 188 

XXXI. Prayer and Missions 193 



Hand-Book on Missions. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFINITIONS. 

I. Webster defines '' mission " as the act 
of sending, or the state of being sent; and 
"missionary" as a being sent b}^ authority 
with certain powers for transacting business. 
Jesus of Nazareth was the Prince of mission- 
aries. He alludes more than once to the fact 
that he was sent hy the Father. " And this is 
eternal life, that they should know thee the 
only true God, and him whom thou didst send^ 
even Jesus Christ."^ '' For God sent not the 
Son into the world to judge the w^orld; but 
that the world should be saved through him.'' ^ 
Speaking of himself he said: " I must preach 
the good tidings of the kingdom of God to 
the other cities also; for therefore was I 
sentr ^ He did not come of himself, the 



1. John xvii: 3. 2. John iii: 17. 3. Luke iv: 43. 



14 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

Father sent him. ^ He was going away from 
the earth. Before his departure he selected 
and trained a number of men to carry on the 
work he began. To them he said: '* As the 
Father hath sent me, even so send I you." ^ 
They were missionaries even as he was. 

2. The word ''apostle'' is the exact 
equivalent of the word '' missionary." One is 
Greek, the other is Latin; both mean the 
same thing. We read: ''And when it was 
day, he called his disciples: and he chose from 
them twelve, whom also he named apostles.'* ^ 
He gave them some experience while he was 
with them. Here is the account: " He gave 
them authority over unclean spirits, to cast 
them out, and to heal all manner of disease and 
all manner of sickness. He sent them out and 
charged them, saying: And as ye go, preach, 
saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, 
cast out demons; freely ye received, freely 
give.'' ^ After he rose from the dead he bade 
them go into all the world and preach the 
gospel to the whole creation. They were to 
tarry in Jerusalem until they were clothed with 
power from on high. The twelve were dis- 



4. John viii: 42. 5. John xx: 21. 6. Luke vi: 13. 7. Matt, x: 
1, 5-8. 



DEFINITIONS. 15 

ciples of Christ, but they were more than that; 
they were his apostles. They were beings 
sent by authorit}^, and clothed with certain 
powers for transacting the Lord's business. 
Paul speaks of himself as an apostle. At the 
time of his conversion the Lord told him that 
he would send him to the Gentiles and the 
Jews to open their eyes, that they might turn 
from darkness unto light, and from the power 
of Satan unto God.^ He was called of God 
and sent forth by him to preach to the nations 
the unsearchable riches of the Christ. As 
our Lord did not undertake this work of his 
own accord simply, neither did they. He 
said: '' As thou didst send me into the world, 
even so send I them into the world." ^ He 
chose them; they did not choose him. He 
qualified them and sent them out to preach 
good tidings to all men everywhere. 

3. If a missionary is one sent, who is it that 
sends him ? Paul delighted to call himself an 
apostle of Jesus Christ. ^^ He assures us that 
his calling was not from men, neither through 
man, but through Jesus Christ and God the 
Father. ^^ He did not enter upon this high 
service on his own motion. Nor was he 



8. Acts xxvi: 17, 18. 9. John xv: 11, 18. 10. I Cor. i: 1: 
Eph. i:l. ll.Gal. i:l. 



16 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

elected to it by his brethren. He was called 
and commissioned by his Redeemer. To 
Ananias the Ivord said: ''He is a chosen 
vessel unto me, to bear my name before the 
Gentiles and kings, and the children of 
Israel/^ The same was true of the twelve. 
He found them fishing or mending their nets 
or collecting taxes and said to them, '' Follow 
me." I^ater on, after years of training in his 
school, he breathed on them and said, "Receive 
ye the Holy Spirit," and charged them to go 
out and evangelize the whole world. This is not 
a human, it is a Divine enterprise. Jesus the 
Christ formed the plan and selected his agents 
to execute it. To them he says, ' ' I am with 
you all the days, even unto the end of the 
world." 

4. Preaching was the chief work of those 
who were sent. The promise is : ' 'Whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
saved. How then shall they call on him in 
whom they have not believed ? and how shall 
they believe in him whom they have not heard ? 
and how shall they hear without a preacher ?" ^ ^ 
The heart and conscience are to be reached 
through the living voice of the living man. 
This is the divine method, and there is no 

12, Actsix: 15. 13. Rom. x: 13, 14. 



DEFINITIONS. 17 

substitute for it. Bible and Tract Societies 
are invaluable auxiliaries, but preaching is the 
principal thing. Jesus was a preacher. He 
said: '' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
because he anointed me to preach good tidings 
to the poor . " ^ ^ His miracles challenged atten- 
tion and were evidences of Sonship. Great as 
they were they were of less value than his 
teaching. The twelve were charged to preach 
the gospel and to heal the sick, but the emphasis 
is always on the preaching. We may send the 
Bible by mail to those who live in non- Christian 
lands. Some argue that that is sufficient. 
Such was not Christ's thought. People can 
ignore the Bible; or they may read it as did 
the Ethiopian officer and not understand it, 
because he had no one to guide him.^^ With 
the living preacher it is diflferent. He meets 
them on the street, and goes into their houses 
and talks with them, and they can not ignore 
him. They must hear and they must think 
about him and his message. If they are unable 
to understand he can sit down with them, as 
Philip did with the Ethiopian, and explain 
what is dark and preach Jesus to them. 

5. The subject matter of their preaching 
was the gospel. This word signifies good tid- 

14. Lukeiv: 18. 15. Acts viii: 31. 



18 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

ings. It is used in different senses. The gos- 
pel preached to Abraham was this, ''In thee 
shall all the nations be blessed." ^^ The gos- 
pel the twelve were to preach on their first tour 
was this, ''The Kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand.''^^ Paul tells us that the gospel he 
preached was this, " That Christ died for our 
sins according to the Scriptures, and that he 
was buried; and that he had been raised on 
the third day according to the Scriptures.'' ^^ 
The gospel the apostles were to preach is the 
gospel of salvation. It is God's power to save 
every believer. A full and free salvation is 
offered to every one that will accept it. " He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; 
but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned." 
^^ The gospel is the great civilizer. By 
changing human nature it changes conduct and 
laws and literature and art and customs and 
everything else. There were many political 
evils in existence in the time of Christ and his 
apostles. The government was a despotism. 
Half the population were slaves. The system 
of collecting taxes was most iniquitous. They 
did not attack these evils; they did not denounce 
despotism or slavery or the vicious system of 



16. Gal. iii: 8. 17. Matt, x: 7. 18. I Cor. xv; 3, 4. 19. Mark 
xvi: 16. 



DEFINITIONS. 19 

taxing that then obtained : they had a greater 
task than to effect any number of outward re- 
forms. Their business was to fill the world 
with the gospel of the glory of the blessed 
God. As they succeeded these evils disap- 
peared like mist before the sun shining in his 
strength. What the nations need is the gos- 
pel. That is all -sufficient and alone-suflScient 
to save from sin and to perfect the individual 
and thereb}^ perfect society. 

6. The missionary spirit is essentially 
Christian. The author of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews says, "Consider the Apostle or Mis- 
sionary and High Priest of our confession, 
even Jesus." ^^ If we think of him and think 
his thoughts over after him, if we drink into 
his spirit, we must feel some concern in behalf 
of those who are without hope because without 
God. The New Testament knows of only two 
classes; those who go, and those who send. -^ 
Some can go: they have health, education, 
ability, open doors, and a call from God. 
Others are lacking in some of these particulars. 
They can not go, but they can support those 
who have gone. They can hold the rope for 
their representatives who have gone dowm into 
the gold mines. Max Miiller has said that the 

20. Heb. iiT: 1. 21. Rom. x: 14. 



20 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. "^ 

Christian religion is by its very nature mission- 
ary, progressive, world- embracing; it would 
cease to exist if it ceased to be missionary, if it 
disregarded the parting injunction of its Foun- 
der. The whole body of believers is to have 
fellowship in this work. If any stands aloof 
and gives no aid or comfort, he may doubt, 
and with good reasons, whether he has the 
spirit of Christ: if he has it not, he is none of 
his. 

QUESTIONS. 

What does the word mission mean? How does 
Christ speak of himself? What other word means 
the same thing ? By whom were the twelve chosen 
and sent? Did they go of their own accord? What 
training did they receive ? What was their first duty ? 
What else did they do ? What did they preach ? 
What is the gospel? Into what classes are all believers 
divided? How does Max Miiller describe Christianity? 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FIELD. 

I. ''The field is the world." ' " This gos- 
pel of the kingdom shall be preached in the 
whole world for a testimony to all the nations."^ 

1. Matt, xiii: 38. 2. Matt, xxiv: 14. 



THE FIELD. 21 

'' Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to the whole creation." ^ These say- 
ings of Jesus leave us in no doubt as to the 
extent of the work. The gospel is not for one 
nation, or for the most advanced nations only; 
it is for the whole world and for every human 
soul therein. On Patmos John heard great 
voices in heaven, saying: ''The kingdom 
of this world is become the kingdom of 
our lyord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign 
for ever and ever." ^ He saw an angel flying 
in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to 
proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, 
and unto ever}^ nation and tribe and tongue 
and people.^ 

2. We speak of Home Missions and For- 
eign Missions. All that this means is that the 
work of evangelizing the world has been 
divided. This division is not recognized in 
the Scriptures. There is no nation or soul 
foreign to God. All are made in his likeness, 
and all are his children, and therefore objects 
of his deepest solicitude. He loves all and he 
is not willing that the least one should perish, 
but that all should come to a knowledge of the 
truth. Jesus Christ tasted death for every 
man. He gave himself a ransom for all, the 

3. Markxvi: 15. 4. Rev. xi: 15. 5. Rev. xiv: 6. 



22 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS 

testimony to be borne in its own time. He 
charged his disciples to preach everywhere for 
the obedience of the faith. There is no differ- 
ence between the Jew and the Greek, or be- 
tween the Saxon and the savage; all are in- 
cluded in the vScheme of redemption. There 
is the same command for preaching the gospel 
everywhere that there is for preaching it any- 
w^here. The division under contemplation was 
made solely for convenience in administration. 
It was made that no part of the iield might be 
neglected. 

3. We find the work divided in the time 
of the apostles. James and Peter and John 
went to the Jews. Paul and Barnabas and 
Titus went to the Gentiles. It is probable 
that no hard and fast lines were drawn. All 
labored within the limits of the Roman Em- 
pire. The Jews were scattered abroad. They 
were the merchants and bankers of that time, 
as they are now. They had synagogues in 
every city. Some of the apostles worked 
mainly among their own people. The others 
worked mainly among those who were not of 
the stock of Abraham. The division then was 
on race and not on territorial lines. The pur- 
pose of God then, as now, was that all might 
hear the word of truth, the gospel of salvation. 



THE FIELD. 23 

This division was intended to facilitate the 
work. One department was not magnified at 
the expense of the other; neither was dispar- 
aged and neglected by the apostles. 

4. The chosen people were to hear the 
gospel first. To them pertained the adoption, 
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giv- 
ing of the law, and the service of God, and 
the promises. ^ Through them all the families 
of the earth should be blessed. The divine 
order therefore was, ''to the Jew first, and 
also to the Greek.'* ^ While repentance and 
remission of sins were to be preached in His 
name to all the nations, the beginning was 
made in Jerusalem.^ Just before his ascension 
our Lord said to his apostles, " Ye shall be my 
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea 
and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the 
earth. "^ Some of the chosen people thought that 
the gospel was for them only. They thought 
that it was only as they became Jewish prose- 
lytes that other nations could enter the King- 
dom of God. They resented the thought that 
the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-mem- 
bers of the body, and fellow-partakers of the 
promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 
Peter told them that they were to be the first to 

1. Rom.ix: 4. 2. Rom. i: 16. 3. Lnke xxiv: 47. 4. Acts i: 8. 



24 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

hear. He said to them, ' * Ye are the sons of the 
prophets, and of the covenant which God made 
with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, * And 
in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed.' Unto you first, God, having raised 
up his Servant, sent him to bless you, in turn- 
ing away every one of you from your iniqui- 
ties /'^ Paul has the same thought, ''It was 
necessary that the word of God should first be 
spoken to ^'^ou. Seeing ye thrust it from you, 
and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, 
lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the 
lyord commanded us, saying, ' I have set thee 
for a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldst 
be for salvation unto the uttermost part of the 
earth. "^ The gospel is for all men. Those 
who have it hold it in trust for those who have 
it not. Those who would keep it to them- 
selves err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the 
gracious intention of our God. 

5. The whole world must be evangelized. 
This is God's purpose, and his purpose cannot be 
defeated. Those at home are to hear the truth; 
the gospel must be carried into the slums and 
homes and palaces of our great cities, into the 
towns and villages, into the highways and 
hedges : our whole population must be brought 

5. Actsiii: 25,26. 6. Acts xiii: 46, 47. 



THE FIELD. 25 

under its influence. But when we have done 
that, we must not think we have done our whole 
duty. Our Lord said : '' Other sheep I have, 
which are not of this fold : them also I must 
bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they 
shall become one flock, one shepherd.'' ' To 
him Jehovah said : ^' Ask of me, and I will give 
thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the 
uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses- 
sion."^ Anything less than the whole inhabited 
earth is less than the thought of Christ. The 
gospel must be carried into every corner of 
darkest Africa, to Arabia, to India, to China, 
to Japan, and to the islands of the sea. Mr. 
Campbell. said: ''The missionary field is as 
broad and as long as the terraqueous globe. 
Every unconverted human being on the earth, 
capable of understanding and believing the 
gospel, is found in the missionary field. Hence 
the Lord himself commanded his prime mission- 
aries to traverse the whole world, and to preach 
the gospel to the whole human race." '' The 
church is, and of right ought to be, a great 
missionary society. Her parish is the whole 
earth — from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates 
to the last domicile of man." Walter Scott 
said: '''Go,' is a verb in the imperative 

7. John x: 16. 8. Ps. ii: 9. 



26 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

mood. The language is imperative and impe- 
rial; it is full of authority. ' Go ye into all the 
world/ to Europe, to Africa, to America and 
to the islands of the sea. lycave your foot- 
prints on the snows of the frozen north. Trace 
out pathways into the flowery pampas of the 
balmy south. Seek the setting sun, the far 
west, the wild prairies, and the still wilder 
men that inhabit them. Search out the land 
of figs and dates, the land of vines and olives, 
tread over the golden sands and along the 
rivers gleaming with diamonds and gold, far, far 
away. Go to those who water their steeds in 
the Rhine, to those who drink from the Seine, 
or who bathe in the Nile or Niger, the sacred 
Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, and the Ira- 
waddy. Go to the ends of the earth, for your 
success will be in the ratio of your mobility.'' 
6. There is no antagonism between the 
work at home and abroad. On the contrary, 
the work at home helps the work abroad, and 
the work abroad reacts favorably upon the 
work at home. Arrest or cripple one, and the 
other suffers in consequence. Some give all 
they have to support the work at home; they feel 
no interest at all in the work in the regions 
beyond. Others give all they have to spare to 
the foreign work and neglect to aid the work 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 27 

at home. Both are mistaken. Each helps the 
other, and both are stronger than either could 
be if they existed alone. Dr. Chalmers spoke 
the truth when he said of the spirit of missions, 
that it works, not by exhaustion, but by 
fermentation. 



QUESTIONS. 

How extensive is the field ? How far is the gos- 
pel to be preached ? What did the voice heard by 
John say ? How is the work divided ? Is this a Scrip- 
tural division? Is one nation dearer to God than 
another? Is there any difference between nations? 
Did the apostles divide the work? On what line? 
Who were to hear first ? Why ? Were others to hear 
it also ? How does the work in one department affect 
the other ? 



CHAPTER III. 

THK SCRIPTURAI, BASIS OF MISSIONS. 

I. The evangelization of the world finds a 
large place in the Word of God. In Genesis 
we have the promise of a Redeemer; in Revela- 
tion we see the redeemed out of every nation, 
and of all tribes and peoples and tongues stand- 
ing before the throne and before the I^amb. 
Our lyord's summary of the Old Testament 



28 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

Messianic prophecies is this : ' * That the Christ 
should suffer, and rise again from the dead the 
third day; and that repentance and remission of 
sins should be preached in his name unto all the 
nations.' ' ^ This is the gist of the law of Moses, 
and the prophets, and the psalms. The truth 
taught in the Old Testament is presented with 
added fullness and emphasis in the New. The 
Gospels were written that all men might be per- 
suaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God. The Book of Acts is a record of the 
missionary labors of the early church. The 
Epistles, for the most part, are letters written 
to missionary churches with a view to their 
instruction in all that pertains to life and god- 
liness. In the Book of Revelation we have 
the final and complete triumph. All opposi- 
tion has been put down, and the ransomed say 
as they sing: '* Alleluia! the Lord God om- 
nipotent reigneth." It is the purpose of God 
to sum up all things in the Christ, the things 
that are in the heaven, and the things that are 
upon the earth. ^ 

2 . Abraham was called to leave his country 
and kindred and home. He was told that he 
would be the father of a great nation; that he 
would be great; that he would be blessed and* 

1. Lukexxiv: 46, 47. 2. Eph. i: 10. 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 29 

be a blessing; and that in him all the families 
of the earth would be blessed. ^ The call of 
Abram marked an epoch in human history, 
as the sailing of the Mayflower marked an 
epoch in American history. After the trial 
of his faith the promise was repeated. The 
lyOrd swore b}^ himself that in blessing he 
would bless him, and in multiplying he would 
multiply his seed as the stars of heaven, and 
as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and 
his seed should possess the gate of his ene- 
mies, and in his seed all nations of the earth 
should be blessed.^ 

3. God spoke in the same strain to Isaac 
and Jacob. To Isaac he said: " Go not down 
into Egypt; dwell in the land I shall tell thee 
of; sojourn in this land, and I will be with 
thee and will bless thee, and unto thy seed I 
will give all these lands, and I will establish 
the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy 
father; and I will multiply thy seed as the 
stars of heaven, and I will give unto thy seed 
all these lands; and in thy seed shall all the 
nations of the earth be blessed." ^ On the way 
to Haran Jacob lay down to sleep, and saw a 
ladder whose top reached to heaven, and the 
angels of God ascended and descended upon 

3. Gen. xii: 1-3. 4. Gen. xxii: 17, 18. 5. Gen. xxvi: 2-4. 



30 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

it. Above it the Lord stood and said: '' I am 
the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and 
the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest 
to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy 
seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou 
Shalt spread forth to the west, to the east, to 
the north, and to the south; and in thee and 
in thy seed shall all the families of the 
earth be blessed.'^ ^ The blessing promised to 
Abraham descended through Isaac, and not 
through Ishmael, who was a wild ass among 
men; and through Jacob, and not through 
Esau, who was a profane man, and who for 
one morsel of meat sold his own birthright. 
To each of these patriarchs it was said: '' In 
thy seed shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed.'' Each was a channel through which 
divinest blessings flowed to the whole creation. 
In blessing his sons Jacob said: " The sceptre 
shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's 
staff from between his feet until Shiloh come; 
and unto him shall the obedience of the peo- 
ples be." ^ To Moses God said: '' As truly 
as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the 
glory of the Lord." ^ The promise is con- 
firmed with an oath. Because he could swear 
by no greater he sware by himself. The Most 

6. Gen. xxviii: 12-14. 7. Gen. xlix: 10. 8. Num. xiv: 21. 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 31 

High entered into covenant with Abraham and 
his seed. He constituted them the depositaries 
of his revealed will; he selected them as his 
agents to communicate the blessings of redemp- 
tion to the whole world. It w^as not out of 
Damascus, or Thebes, or Hamath, or Nineveh, 
or Babylon; it was out of Zion, the perfection 
of beauty, that God hath shined. 

4. We find this same thought in the 
Psalms. Thus we read: '' the Lord said unto 
me, Thou art my son ; this day have I begot- 
ten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the 
nations fo| thine inheritance, and the utter- 
most part of the earth for thy possession." ^ 
Kings and rulers may oppose; their opposition 
shall not prevail. They shall be ground to 
powder and driven away like chaff before the 
whirlwind. Again: ''All the ends of the earth 
shall remember and turn to the Lord ; and all 
the kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
him. For the kingdom is the Lord's ; and he 
is the ruler among the nations/' ^^ Again: ''God 
be merciful to us, and bless us ; and cause his 
face to shine upon us ; that thy way may be 
known upon earth, thy saving health among 
all nations. " ^ ^ The covenant people shall be 
blessed, and through them all the ends of the 

9. Psa. ii: 7, 8. 10. Psa. xxii : 27, 28. 11. Psa. Ixvii : 1, 2. 



32 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

earth shall be led to fear him. Again: ''He 
shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and 
from the river unto the ends of the earth. They 
that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before 
him, and his enemies shall lick the dust. The 
kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring 
presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall 
offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down be- 
fore him; all nations shall serve him." ^^ His 
reign shall be world-wide and it shall endure 
forever. All nations shall be blessed in him; 
all nations shall call him happy. Once more: 
" All nations whom thou hast made shall come 
and worship before thee, O Lord: and they 
shall glorify thy name. For thou art great 
and doest wondrous things; thou art God 
alone." ^^ Among the gods of the nations 
there was none like to Jehovah, neither were 
there any works like to his works. Solomon 
spoke to the same effect. In his dedicatory 
prayer he remembered the stranger from a far 
country as he begged God to do all that he 
asked, ''that all the people of earth may know 
thy name, and fear thee, as doth the people of 
Israel. " ^^ The chosen people had the law and 
the covenants and the promises, but they had 



12. Ps. Ixxii: 8-11. 13. Ps. Ixxxvi: 9, JO. 14. II Chron. vi: 
32, 33. 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 33 

intimations all along that it was God's purpose 
to save all nations. 



QUESTIONS. 

How does our Lord summarize the Old Testa- 
ment ? In what divisions of this book is anything re- 
lating to missions taught? Why were the Gospels 
written? What is the book of Acts? The Epistles? 
Revelation? What was Abraham to leave? Where 
was he to go ? What promise was given him ? Was 
this promise repeated ? To what other men did God 
. speak in the same strain ? Can you describe the cir- 
cumstances ? What did Jacob say when dying ? What 
did the Lord say to Moses ? How did he confirm his 
promise ? Concerning whom did Solomon speak in 
his prayer ? Why does he intercede for the stranger ? 
What is the Son told to ask for ? Where has he been 
placed? Did any oppose? What was their fate? 
Why was God asked to be merciful ? What shall all 
kings do ? What shall the nations be ? What were 
the chosen people to do ? 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 
{Continued.^ 

I . The prophets foresaw and foretold that 
all nations were to be blessed in Christ. Thus 
Isaiah said: '' And it shall come to pass in the 



34 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

latter days, that the mountain of the Lord's 
house shall be established in the top of the 
mountains, and shall be exalted above the 
hills, and all nations shall flow into it. And 
many nations shall say. Come ye, and let us 
go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the 
house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach 
us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; 
for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and 
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'' ^ The 
way of a man is not in himself; it is not in a , 
man that walks to direct his steps. Realizing 
this all nations shall seek Divine guidance. 
Again: '' And it shall come to pass in that day, 
that the root of Jesse, which standeth for an 
ensign to the peoples, unto him shall the na- 
tions seek, and his resting place shall be 
glorious. ' ' ^ Christ was to be the banner un- 
der which all nations should rally. Again: 
' ' In that day shall Israel be the third with 
Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of 
the earth; for that the Lord of hosts hath 
blessed them, saying. Blessed be Egypt my 
people, and Assyria the work of my hands, 
and Israel, mine inheritance."^ The blessing 
of Abraham was not confined to one people. 
For good reasons Israel dwelt alone for a sea- 

1. Isa. ii: 2,3. 2. Isa. xi:10. 3. Isa. xix: 24, 25. 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OP MISSIONS. 35 

son, but no Chinese wall was to shut that 
nation from all others for all time. God is the 
Father of all, and he desires the salvation of 
all. He says, " Look unto me, and be ye 
saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, 
and there is none else. By myself have I 
sworn, the word is gone forth from my mouth 
in righteousness, and shall not return, that 
unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue 
shall swear/'* There were gods many and 
lords many; there were gods of wood, and 
stone, and silver; but Jehovah said to the 
worshipers: '' I am a just God and a Savior; 
there is none beside me." Again: '' It is too 
light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant 
to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore 
the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee 
for a light to the Gentiles, that thou may est 
be my salvation unto the ends of the earth." ^ 
That was to be the great work of the chosen 
people. Their first duty was to give light to 
them that sit in darkness and to guide their 
feet into the way of peace. When they sinned 
themselves they were carried away into cap- 
tivity, but God did not forget them. For 
their sakes he made bare his arm in the sight 
of all the nations; he caused all the earth to 

4. Isa. xlv: 22, 23. 5. Isa. xlix; 6. 



36 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

witness his salvation of them. Because of his 
discipline and deliverance, kings should see 
and arise; princes also and they should wor- 
ship. We read again: ''Arise, shine; for 
thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is 
risen upon thee. For behold darkness shall 
cover the earth, and gross darkness the peo- 
ples; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and 
his glory shall be seen upon thee. And na- 
tions shall come to thy light, and kings to the 
brightness of thy rising. ' ' ^ The nations would 
gather about the people whom the Lord had 
blessed as doves ga'her about their windows. 
The whole earth would be lighted up with the 
glory of the Lord. Again : ' ' For as the earth 
bringeth forth her bud and as the garden 
causeth the things that are sown in it to spring 
forth; so the Lord God shall cause right- 
eousness and praise to spring forth before all 
the nations." ^ Other faiths were tribal and 
local, and had no thought of being anything 
else But from the first and throughout all 
dispensations the thought, that the gospel is 
for all nations, is made prominent. As the 
Spirit of God moved the spirit of the prophet 
he said: '' For Zion's sake I will not hold my 
peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not 

6. Isa. Ix: 1-3. 7. Isa. Ixi: 11. 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS, 37 

rest, until her righteousness go forth as bright- 
ness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. 
And the nations shall see thy righteousness, 
and all kings thy glory. ' ' ^ 

2. Another of the great prophets said: 
*'At that time they will call Jerusalem the 
throne of the I^ord; and all the nations shall 
be gathered into it, to the name of the Lord."^ 
When Israel's backslidings would be healed, 
God would be merciful to his people and would 
prosper them. Then other nations would 
come to share in their prosperity and joy. '* If 
thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, unto 
me shalt thou return; and if thou wilt put 
away thine abominations out of my sight, then 
shalt thou not be removed; and thou shalt 
swear, As the Lord liveth, in truth, in judg- 
ment, and in righteousness, and the nations 
shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall 
they glory." ^^ Everywhere the thought, that 
Israel is to impart blessings to the nations, is 
emphasized. By their sins they cut oflF these 
blessings; by fidelity and nobleness they caused 
good to flow to the ends of the earth. 

3. The King of Babylon saw a great 
image. Part of it was of gold, part of silver, 
part of iron, and part of clay. He saw a stone 

8. Isa.lxii:l,2. 9. Jer. iii: 17. 10. Jer. iv: 1,2. 



38 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

cut out without hands, and it smote the image 
and ground it to powder, and the stone became 
a great mountain, and it filled the whole earth. 
In explaining this dream Daniel told the king 
that he was the head of gold. Other kings 
that should come after him were represented 
by the inferior ingredients. In the days of 
these kings the God of heaven would set up a 
kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, nor 
shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another 
people; but it shall break in pieces and consume 
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.^ ^ 
4. Micah, speaking of the glorious work 
of Christ, said: ** And he shall stand, and 
shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, 
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his 
God; and they shall abide; for now shall he 
be great unto the ends of the earth." ^ ^ Another 
prophet said: ** For the earth shall be filled 
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, 
as the waters cover the sea.''^^ Another still 
said: '* For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet 
once, it is a little while, and I will shake the 
heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the 
dry land; and I will shake all nations; and 
the desirable things of all nations shall come.'*^^ 



11. Dan. ii: 31-35, 38, 44. 12. Mic. v: 4. 13. Hab. ii: 14. 14. 
Hag.ii: 6,7. 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF 3IISSI0NS. 39 

And yet another said: '' Thus saith the Lord 
of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, 
that ten men shall take hold out of all the lan- 
guages of the nations, shall even take hold of 
the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will 
go with you, for we have heard that God is with 
you."^^ Israel was blessed, that was evident 
to all. God had not so dealt with any nation. 
Because of the loving favor bestowed upon 
them, people would come from far and near to 
share in their blessedness. The same prophet 
said: *' Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; 
shout O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy 
king Cometh unto thee: he is just and having 
salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even 
upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut 
off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse 
from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut 
off; and he shall speak peace to the nations; 
and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and 
from the river unto the ends of the earth.' '^^ 
Through the last of these inspired men the 
Lord said: "From the rising of the sun to 
the going down of the same my name shall be 
great among the Gentiles; and in every place 
incense shall be offered unto my name and a 
pure offering; for my name shall be great 

15. Zech. viii : 23. 16. Zech. ix : 9, 10. 



40 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

among the Gentiles. "^'^ From the call of 
Abraham till the close of the Old Testament 
canon, the catholicity of the divine purpose is 
apparent. We have line upon line showing 
that it is God's desire to bless all nations. He 
called Israel to the highest of all services, and 
not to selfishly and solitarily enjoy the blessings 
bestowed. His chosen people were to enlighten 
the heathen world by bringing them the know- 
ledge of his revealed will. This thought did not 
take possession of the Jewish mind in the 
Kxile. The universality of the perfected king- 
dom of God was not borrowed from the world- 
empire of Assyria. This thought was rooted 
in the minds of that people from the days of 
Abraham; it was implanted by the Divine 
Hand; itw^as not a product of the Captivity. 

17. Mai. i: 11. 



QUKSTIONS. 

From what city was the law to go out ? How far 
was it to extend ? Who were to propose to go up and 
wait on God? For what purpose? Why not teach 
each other? How does Isaiah represent Christ? 
What fitness in the figure ? How long was Israel to 
dwell alone ? What knees shall bow ? What tongues 
swear? Was light given Israel for their own good 
only? Was it enough that they saved their own 
souls ? Were the old faiths catholic or tribal ? How 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 41 

does Daniel speak of the kingdom of Christ? What 
other prophets spoke of the same matter ? Can you 
give an account of the teachings of each ? Did the 
thought under consideration spring up during the 
Exile? Can you prove it ? 



CHAPTER V. 

THK SCRIPTURAI. BASIS OF MISSIONS. 

{Concluded,) 
I . Speaking of the great mystery of god- 
liness Paul mentions among other things these 
two: ''Christ was preached among the na- 
tions, believed on in the world/' ^ The Jew- 
ish people had come to regard themselves as 
God's own elect. They did not seek to spread 
abroad a knowledge of their religion. '' Their 
religion was to them a treasure, a privilege, a 
blessing, something to distinguish them from 
all the rest of mankind." They were a royal 
nation, a peculiar people, and it was diflBcult 
for them to believe that all nations were to 
share with them in the blessings of redemption. 
They thought that other peoples could have 
an interest in the Messiah only as they became 
Jews and kept the law of Moses. 

1. I Tim. iii: 16. 



42 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

2. The Talmud says: ''He who takes the 
bread of a Samaritan is like him who eats the 
flesh of swine. No Israelite may receive a 
Samaritan as a proselyte; this accursed people 
shall have no part in the resurrection of the 
dead." It was a common saying that a 
Samaritan was not to be trusted till the twenty- 
fourth generation. The heathen were hated 
even more than the Samaritans, and the thought 
of their salvation was still more odious. On 
the screen dividing the court of the Gentiles 
from the inner sanctuary was this inscription : 
' ' No foreigner shall enter within the balus- 
trade and enclosure around the temple; who- 
ever is caught will have himself to blame for 
his death, which is sure to follow." They 
drank in this prejudice with their mother's 
milk; the atmosphere was saturated with it. 
When they heard that the apostles were to be 
witnesses to Christ first in Jerusalem, and in 
all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
part of the earth, they foresaw a revolution in 
which all that distinguished them was to be 
done away. The thought of universal equality 
was most repugnant to them. One of the 
charges Paul made against these people was 
that they forbade preaching to the Gentiles, 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 43 

that they might be saved. ^ They were dis- 
pleased beyond measure by the thought that 
all walls of separation were to be broken down, 
and that all nations were to have salvation 
placed within their reach. More than once 
mobs were organized to kill the apostles for 
proclaiming a doctrine so offensive to their 
countrymen. The Holy Spirit sought to cor- 
rect this view and to convince these people that 
it was the purpose of God in all the ages to 
bless all the families of the earth. 

3. John the Baptist charged these people 
not to rely on their descent from Abraham, for 
God was able of the stones to raise up children 
to Abraham Unless they had Abraham's 
faith in their hearts, his blood in their veins 
would not avail. Blood was nothing; fruit 
was everything. Our lyOrd did not share in 
any of the prejudices of his race and age. 
Birth, wealth, social position, religious profes- 
sions, were nothing to him. Their views were 
provincial, his were world-wide. He said: ^'I 
am the light of the world; he that folio we th 
Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 
the light of life." ^ Gautama is the light of 
Asia; Christ is the light that lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world. His gracious 

2. IThes. ii: 16. 3. John viii: 12. 



44 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

purposes were not confined to Palestine; they 
took in the whole earth. We hear him say : 
'' Other sheep I have, which are not of this 
fold; them also must I bring, and they shall 
hear my voice; and they shall become one 
flock, one shepherd.''^ He came into the 
world to save sinners. The question of race 
is unimportant. No sinner will be rejected by 
him. When the pagan priests of the same 
time were about to ofi^er sacrifices they said to 
the common people: ''Be off! Be off!'^ To 
the same classes our Lord said : ' ' Come to 
me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest." The field of the gos- 
pel is the world. Wherever there is on the 
planet a soul that hungers and thirsts after 
righteousness, there is a soul for whom Christ 
died and in whose welfare he is profoundly 
interested. 

4. Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus should 
die for the nation, and not for the nation only, 
but also that he might gather into one the 
children of God that are scattered abroad.' 
He died for all and charged his disciples to 
preach the gospel everywhere for the obe- 
dience of the faith. The character of the great 
commission is the best evidence of the deity of 

4. John x: 16. 5. John xi: 53. 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 45 

its Author. In it there is no trace of Jewish 
prejudice, there is none of the spirit of caste. 
The Chinese regard themselves as the most 
civilized people in existence ; all others are 
barbarians. The Brahmans regard themselves 
as far above the other castes as the heaven is 
above the earth. Christ had no sneer and no 
scorn for any human soul. The catholicity 
of his sentiments were the marvel of his reign. 
They are far in advance of the sentiments 
cherished by most people in our own day. A 
Roman poet said: "I am a man, and nothing 
that concerns humanity can be a matter of in- 
difference to me. ' ' In the theatre that bit of 
sentiment was loudly applauded. The same 
poet exposed one of his own children to death, 
Plato thanked the gods that he was a man and 
not a brute, a Greek and not a Barbarian. To 
the people of Athens Paul said that God had 
made of one every nation of men for to dwell 
on all the face of the earth. ^ They may dif- 
fer in color and in condition; they are children 
of the same Father. We hear much about the 
brotherhood of man. This is a platform plat- 
itude, and little more. In the Scriptures it is 
not so: there it is a dominant principle. If 
Israel had any advantage over the other na- 

6. Actsxvii: 26. 



46 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

tions, it was that he might be the servant of 
God to publish his salvation to all the ends of 
the earth. 

5. At the council in Jerusalem, Peter de- 
clared that God selected him to preach to the 
Gentiles. ''And God, which knoweth the 
heart, bare them witness, giving them the 
Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us; and he 
made no distinction ^between us and them, 
cleansing their hearts by faith/' ^ Paul has the 
same thought: *'For in one Spirit were we all 
baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, 
whether bond or free; and were all made to 
drink of one Spirit." ^ Again: ''For as many of 
you as were baptized into Christ did put on 
Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek; 
there can be neither bond nor free; there can 
be no male and female, for ye are all one 
man in Christ Jesus.'* ^ There is no distinc- 
tion between Jew and Greek; the gospel is 
for both; it is God's power to save both. 
John speaks of Christ as the propitiation for 
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the 
whole world ^^ 

6. When the foundations of the earth 
were laid the morning stars sang together, and 



7. Acts XV : 8. 8. I. Cor. xii: 14. 9. Gal, iii: 27, 28. 10. 1. John 
ii:3. 



THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF MISSIONS. 47 

all the sons of God shouted for joy. When 
the works of redemption shall have been com- 
pleted, the nations of the saved shall sing the 
new song, ' ' Worthy art thou to take the book, 
and to open the seals thereof ; for thou wast 
slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy 
blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and peo- 
ple, and nation, and madest them to be unto our 
God a kingdom and priests ; and they reign 
upon the earth. "^ ^ This is the final issue of the 
work of redemption. This is the consummation 
and crown of all God's dealings with our race. 
This is the one far-off divine event to which 
the whole creation moves. This is the fulfill- 
ment of the promise made to Abraham, " In 
thy seed shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed." 



11. Rev. v: 9,10. 



QUESTIONS. 



What is the myster}^ of godliness? How did the 
Jews regard themselves ? What caused them to feel 
as they did ? How did they think other nations could 
be saved? How does the Talmud speak of Samari- 
tans? Who were the Samaritans? Why were they 
hated? Were Pagans hated more or less? Were 
foreigners allowed to enter the Temple enclosure? 
If they went beyond a certain line what followed? 
What did the Jews think of the equality of all men ? 
Did they feel anxious to retain their preeminence? 



48 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

If SO, why ? How did Jolin speak to them ? How 
did Christ speak of Himself? What was the differ- 
ence between the Roman priests and Christ in regard 
to the common people? What was the gist of the 
prophecy of Caiaphas ? How do the Chinese and the 
Brahmans think of themselves and others? What 
fine thing did a Roman poet say ? Did his conduct 
agree with this? What did Plato give thanks for? 
What did Paul say to the Athenians about the nations ? 
Who was the first to preach to the Gentiles ? Had he 
a different message for them ? What did Paul say 
aboiit the Jew and the Greek? Who rejoiced when 
the earth was created? Who shall rejoice when it 
shall be redeemed? To whom shall be ascribed the 
honor? 



CHAPTER VI. 

MISSIONS IN THE I.IFK OF CHRIST. 

1. Our Lord speaks of himself as being 
sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.^ 
In order to reach them with the message of 
salvation, he must visit the towns and villages 
of Palestine. His zeal and activity were bound- 
less. He was constantly in motion. He made 
eight circuits of Galilee. We see him repeat- 
edly in Samaria, in Perea, and Judea. He 
sought to reach every member of the nation. 

2. After his baptism at Bethany beyond 

1. Matt. XV : 24. 



MISSIONS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 49 

Jordan he returned to Galilee. He attended 
the marriage at Cana. Here he performed his 
first miracle and manifested forth his glory. 
Then he went to Capernaum. We next find him 
in Jerusalem at the Passover. He spent some 
time in and near the holy cit}^ and made many 
converts. When he knew that the Pharisees 
heard that he made and baptized more disci- 
ples than John, he left Judea and went back 
to Galilee. On the wa}^ he passed through 
Samaria and spoke to the woman and people 
of Sychar. After reaching Galilee, we read 
of his being in Cana a second time, and in 
Nazareth, and in Capernaum. In each place 
he preached and wrought miracles. 

3. We are told of his systematic visitation 
of Galilee: ''And Jesus went about in all Gali- 
lee, teaching in their s^magogues, and preach- 
ing the gospel of the kingdom, and healing 
all manner of disease and all manner of sick- 
ness among the people."" Multitudes fol- 
lowed him from Galilee and Decapolis and 
Jerusalem and Judea and from be3^ond Jor- 
dan. His fame reached Syria, and they brought 
to him their sick, their demoniacs, the epi- 
leptics, and the palsied. Some of the dis- 
ciples said to him : ''All men are seeking 

2. Matt, iv: 23. 



50 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

thee." He said: ''Let us go elsewhere, into 
the next towns, that I may preach there also; 
for to this end came I forth. ' ' ^ Some of his 
admirers wanted to detain him among them. 
They did not wish to see him going about 
from place to place. He felt that he must go 
to the people. He could not reach them if he 
stayed in one place. 

4. Having made this circuit he attended a 
feast in Jerusalem. The rulers were hostile, 
and he soon went back to Galilee. In Caper- 
naum he healed the centurion's servant; in 
Nain he raised the widow's son. Then he made 
a second missionary tour. Luke says: "And 
it came to pass soon afterward, that he went 
through cities and villages, preaching and 
bringing the good tidings of the kingdom of 
God.'* ^ Because of the crowds and excite- 
ment he crossed the sea to the country of the 
Gadarenes. Because the people lost their swine, 
they begged him to go away. He returned to 
Capernaum and Nazareth. Then he made a 
third circuit of Galilee. The record says: ''And 
Jesus went about all the cities and villages, 
teaching in their synagogues, and preaching 
the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all 
manner of disease and all manner of sickness." ^ 



3. Mark i: 38. 4. Luke viii: 1. 5. Matt, ix: 35. 



MISSI0J5S IX THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 51 

He was distressed on account of the people, for 
they were as sheep not having a shepherd. 

5. Next we find him crossing the sea of 
GaHlee. The people followed him and wanted 
to take him by force and make him a king. 
Seeing this he withdrew into a mountain, and 
that night crossed over and came to Caper- 
naum. x\fter a little he visited Tyre and 
Sidon, then he returned to Decapolis. We 
next hear of him in Bethsaida, where he healed 
a blind man; afterward in Caesarea Philippi, 
where Peter confessed his divinity; and after 
that on Mount Hermon, where he was trans- 
figured. Then he went back to Galilee and 
Capernaum. Soon after he went up to Jeru- 
salem. We next find him in Perea. Therce 
he went to Bethan^^, and thence to the border 
of Samaria. Again we find him in Perea, 
in Jericho and Jerusalem. The point to be 
noticed is this: He was ever in motion. 

6. Because the time was short and the 
field large, he called the twelve disciples, and 
gave them authority over unclean spirits, to 
cast them out, and to heal all manner of dis- 
ease and sickness. They were to confine 
their labors to the children of Israel. They 
were not to attempt anything in the interests 
of the Gentiles or Samaritans. Thev were to 



52 HAND BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

preach as they went, to heal the sick, raise 
the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. 
They were to take no money nor a change of 
clothing.^ If they were persecuted in one 
place they were to flee to another. They 
would not be able to go through all the 
country before the Son of Man would come. 
Later on in his ministry he sent out seventy 
others to go before his face and to prepare the 
people for his message. Their instructions 
and duties were similar to those of the twelve. ' 
The Master said: "He that heareth you, hear- 
eth me; and he that rejecteth you, rejecteth me; 
and he that rejecteth me, rejecteth him that 
sent me.^' ^ The whole people must hear the 
gospel. To this end these men were sent out 
into every city and place. 

7. While he was sent first to the Jews, 
there are intimations all along that the gospel 
is for all races and classes and conditions of 
men. Wise men came from the east to wor- 
ship him. ^ Though they were not of the stock 
of Abraham, they were not rejected. After- 
ward some Greeks came to Jerusalem saying: 
'' We would see Jesus," ^^ Our Lord was not 
displeased. Speaking of the faith of the cen- 



6. Matt, x: 6-10. 7. Luke x: 1-4. 8. Luke x: 16. 9. Matt. 
1,2. 10. John xii: 20, 21. 



MISSIONS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 53 

turion he said: *' Verily I say unto you, I 
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 
And I say unto you that many shall come from 
the east and the west and shall sit down with 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the king- 
dom of heaven." ^^ He was telling the people 
all the time that the gospel was for all man- 
kind. There were other sheep than those of 
the house of Israel, and these he must bring. 
He told his hearers that ' ^ God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life."^^ The gospel is 
not for any one race or section of the globe; it 
is for all races and for all sections. Speaking 
of his death he said: " And I, if I be lifted 
up from the earth, will draw all men unto 
me." ^'^ After he died and rose from the dead, 
he said to his disciples: '' Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to the whole cre- 
ation." ^^ His last words before the ascension 
had reference to the evangelization of the 
world. After his coronation and session at 
the right hand of the Father he appeared to 
Saul of Tarsus to appoint him a minister and 
a witness to Jews and Gentiles, to open their 



11. Matt, viii: 10, 11. 12. John iii: 16. 13. John xii: 32. 14. 
Mark xvi: 15. 



54 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS 

eyes, that they might turn from darkness to 
light, and from the power of Satan unto God. ^ ^ 
On Patmos he appeared to John and showed 
him a vision of redeemed humanity. John 
heard every created thing that is in the heaven 
and on the earth, and under the earth, and in 
the sea, and all things that are in them, say- 
ing: '' Unto him that sitteth on the throne, 
and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the 
honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for 
ever and ever." ^^ Our Lord's interest in this 
work will not abate until his purpose is accom- 
plished and the whole world evangelized. 

15. Acts xxvi: 17, 18. 16. Rev. v: 13. 



QUESTIONS. 

To whom was Jesus sent? Did he stay in one 
place or go about? How many circuits of Galilee did 
he make ? What did he do on these circuits ? Can 
you give an account of some of his works ? When 
his friends sought to detain him, what did he say? 
Did he create any excitement? How many did he 
send out ? What were they to do ? How were they 
equipped ? Was the gospel for the Jews only ? Did 
others come to him? What passages indicate the 
world-wide scope of the gospel ? What charge did 
he give after he rose from the dead? 



THE .AJPOSTLES AND MISSIONS. OD 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE APOSTI.es AND MISSIONS. 

I . Our Lord charged the eleven to tarry in 
Jerusalem until they were clothed with power 
from on high.^ It was after the Holy Spirit 
came upon them that they were to bear wit- 
ness to Him in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the 
earth." On the day of Pentecost they were all 
filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak 
as the Spirit gave them utterance. There 
appeared tongues parting asunder, as of fire, 
and it sat on each one of them.*^ These 
tongues were symbols of their oflSce. They 
were called to ' 'preach in every form of human 
speech, from continent to continent." On 
that very day they began to testify concerning 
Christ. Peter closed his sermon with these 
words: ''Let all the house of Israel know 
assuredly that God hath made him both Lord 
and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified."'* 
The authorities bore witness to their unwearied 
propaganda. They said, " You have filled 
Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to 

1. Luke xxiv : 49. 2. Acts i : 8. 3. Acts ii : 3, 4. 4. Acts ii : 36. 



56 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

bring this man's blood on us.'* ^ They charged 
them not to speak at all nor teach in the name 
of Jesus. Their answer was: '' Whether it be 
right in the sight of God to hearken unto you 
rather than unto God, judge ye: for we cannot 
but speak the things which we saw and heard. "^ 
The truth was like a burning fire shut up in 
their bones, and they could not be silent. The 
preaching was not all done by the apostles; the 
deacons and members who filled no office bore 
witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. 
2. For a time the work was confined to 
Jerusalem. They were told to tarry in the city 
till they were clothed with power from on high. 
It seems that they were disposed to tarry there 
long after the Spirit was given. The believers 
were of one heart and one soul, and had all 
things in common. Those that had possessions 
and goods sold them and parted them to all, 
according as any man had need. ^ 'And day by 
day, continuing with one accord in the temple, 
and breaking bread at home, they did take their 
food with gladness and singleness of heart, 
praising God, and having favor with all the 
people. '* ^ This was pleasant, but it was not 
what our lyord contemplated. The season of 
popularity did not last long. Persecution broke 

5. Acts v: 28. 6. Acts iv: 19, 20. 7. Acts ii: 44-47. 



THE APOSTLES AND MISSIONS. 57 

up the happy fellowship in Jerusalem and 
scattered the believers. 

3. Stephen, one of the seven deacons, was 
full of grace and power, and wrought great 
wonders and signs among the people. Those 
that disputed with him were not able to with- 
stand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he 
spake. Failing in argument they stopped their 
ears, and rushed upon him with one accord; 
and they cast him out of the city and stoned 
him.^ They thought to silence his plea. The 
effect was the direct opposite of this. His 
death led to the dispersion of the church and 
indirectly to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. 
We read : ''And there arose on that day a great 
persecution against the church which was in 
Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad 
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, 
except the apostles.'' "They therefore that 
were scattered abroad went about preaching the 
word." ^ Philip preached and wrought signs 
in Samaria. The multitudes gave heed with 
one accord to his message. The apostles in 
Jerusalem sent Peter and John to them. They 
prayed that the converts might receive the 
Holy Spirit. Before their return they preached 
to many villages of the Samaritans. Soon after 

8. Acts vii: 57. 9. Acts viii: 1, 4. 



58 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

we are told that as Peter went through all parts, 
he came also to the saints that dwelt at Lydda. 
From lyydda he went to Joppa, and from Joppa 
to Caesarea. At an early day the gospel was 
preached in Judea, Galilee, Samaria, Damascus, 
Cyrene, Phoenicia and Antioch. We do not 
know the names of many who bore witness for 
Christ in these places. Perhaps it was this 
period that Mark had in mind when he wrote: 
" And they went forth, preaching everywhere, 
the Lord working with them, and confirming 
the word by the signs that followed.' '^° 

4. It was only by slow degrees that the 
apostles and their associates came to realize 
that the gospel is for every creature in all the 
world. Their race pride blinded the eyes of 
their hearts. Those that were scattered 
abroad upon the tribulations that arose about 
Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, and Cy- 
prus, and Antioch, speaking the word to none 
save only to Jews, ^ ^ These early believers did 
not understand that the gospel overleaps all 
bounds of race and nation and color and con- 
dition. They thought that only Jews and 
Jewish proselytes could be saved. Peter was 
the first among the twelve and had the keys 
of the kingdom, but he had all the prejudices 

10. Mark xvi: 20. 11. Acts xi: 19. 



THE APOSTLES AND MISSIONS. 59 

of his people. When he was told to preach 
to the household of Cornelius, he drew back 
and made excuses. He said it was an unlaw- 
ful thing for a man that is a Jew to join him- 
self or come unto one of another nation. 
That was his conviction. The Lord had to 
show him a vision and to repeat it three times in 
order to dislodge his prejudices and to convince 
him of his duty. In his address to Cornelius 
and his family he said: ''Of a truth I per- 
ceive that God is no respecter of persons ; but 
in every nation he that feareth him, and 
worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him." ^^ 
On his return to Jerusalem some of the be- 
lievers contended with him, saying: ''Thou 
wentest in to men uncircumcised and didst eat 
with them." ^^ Peter expounded the matter 
unto them in order and closed by telling them 
that, as he began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell 
on them, as upon the apostles at the beginning. 
Since God gave them this gift, thus demon- 
strating his acceptance of these people and his 
approval of the conduct of his servant, it was 
not for him to reject them. When the}^ heard 
these things they held their peace and glori- 
fied God, saying: " Then to the Gentiles also 
hath God granted repentance unto life.'^ ^^ 

12. Acts x: 35. 13. Acts xi: 3. 14. Acts xi: 4-18. 



60 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

Gradually the church came to know that there 
is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for 
the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto 
all that call upon him: for, whosoever shall 
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. ^ ^ 
5. The book of Acts does not deal in ex- 
act statistics. It does not set forth all the tri- 
umphs of the gospel At the same time the 
reader is impressed with the thought that 
Christianity is a victorious faith. It pressed 
on like a bannered army from conquering to 
conquer. The first sermon led to 3,000 con- 
versions.^^ Soon after the number of men 
was 5,000.^' A little later believers were the 
more added to the Lord, multitudes both of 
men and women. ^' Again we are told that 
the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly, 
and a great company of the priests became 
obedient unto the faith. ^^ We read that the 
church in all Judea and Galilee and Samaria 
had peace, being edified, and walking in the 
fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy 
Spirit, was multiplied. ^^ In Joppa many be- 
lieved in the Lord.^^ All that dwelt at Lydda 
and Saron turned to the Loid.^^ In Iconium 



15. Rom. x: 12, 13. 16. Acts ii: 14. 17. Acts iv: 4. 18. Acts 
: 14. 19. Acts vi: 7. 20. Acts ix: 31. 21. Acts ix: 42. 22. Acts 
: 35. 



THE APOSTLES AND MISSIONS. 61 

a great multitude, both of Jews and Greeks, 
believed.^^ In Derbe many disciples were 
made.^^ In Thessalonica some of the Jews 
were persuaded, and consorted with Paul and 
Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multi- 
tude, and of the chief women not a few ^^ In 
Corinth many hearing, believed, and were 
baptized. ^^' In Berea many of the Jews be- 
lieved, also of the Greek women of honorable 
estate, and of men not a few. ^ ^ In Ephesus 
the word of the Lord grew mightily and pre- 
vailed.-^ In Jerusalem many myriads among 
the Jews believed ^^ Converts are mentioned 
in Tyre, Caesarea, Troas, Athens, Philippi, 
Lystra and Damascus. Paul speaks of the 
gospel as bearing fruit in all the world, and 
states that it had been preached in all creation 
under heaven.^ ^ 



23. Acts xiv: 1. 24. Acts xiv: 21. 25. Acts xvii: 4 26. 
Acts xviii: 8. 27. Acts xvii: 12. 28. Acts xix: 20. 29. Acts 
xxi: 20. 30. Col. i: 6, 23. 



QUESTIONS. 

How long were the eleven to tarry in the city ? 
When the Spirit was given what did they do? Did 
they persist in this ? What evidence have we ? Was 
there any disposition to remain in Jerusalem? Whose 
preaching led to the dispersion ? To what regions did 
the dispersed go ? What did they do ? Where did 



62 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

Philip go ? Did the early church feel that the Gospel 
is for all? How were Peter's eyes opened? Did the 
Gospel triumph in spite of opposition ? Name some 
places in which many believed? 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MISSIONS IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 

I. When the Lord met Saul of Tarsus on 
the way to Damascus, he told him that he 
appeared to him to appoint him a minister and 
a witness both of the things he had seen and 
of the things wherein he would appear unto 
him. He assured him that he would deliver 
him from the people of Israel and from the 
Gentiles, and would send him to them. He 
began at once to preach to the people in Da- 
mascus, and afterward in Jerusalem, and 
throughout all the country of Judea, and also 
to the Gentiles. ^ It is clear that he wanted 
to remain in Jerusalem. In one of his defences 
he said that in a trance he heard the Lord say- 
ing to him: ^'Make haste, and get thee quickly 
out of Jerusalem ; because they will not re- 
ceive of thee testimony concerning me.* * And 

1. Actsxxvi: 16-20. 



MISSIONS IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 63 

he said: "Lord, they themselves know that I 
imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them 
that believed on thee ; and when the blood of 
Stephen thy witness was shed, I also was 
standing by and consenting, and keeping the 
garments of them that slew him." The Lord 
replied: ''Depart, for I will send thee forth far 
hence to the Gentiles."^ He did not enter 
upon the work of world wide evangelism of 
his own accord; the Lord apprehended him 
and thrust him into it. 

2. After the great triumphs of the gos- 
pel in Antioch, Barnabas needed a helper. 
He went to Tarsus to seek Saul. He found 
him and brought him back with him. Anti- 
och was the eye of the East. It was the third 
city in the Empire. Here Barnabas and Saul 
spent a whole year. The church was large 
and prosperous. Doubtless the leading spirits 
felt that the presence and labors of these two 
apostles were indispensable; the Spirit thought 
differently. He said : ' ' Separate me Barnabas 
and Saul for the work whereunto I have called 
them." ^ He was led on step by step by the 
Divine Spirit. At first he wanted to remain 
in Jerusalem; afterward he wanted to remain 
within the limits of Asia. When he passed 

2. Actsxxii: 17-21. 3. Acts xiii: 2. 



64 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

through Phrygia and Galatia and had almost 
reached the western part of the continent, he 
wanted to return by a southern route. Being 
forbidden to go in that direction he tried to 
find a northern passage through Bithynia, but 
the Spirit of Jesus suflFered him not.* He was 
hedged in on both sides and guided to Troas. 
Here he saw in a vision a man of Macedonia, 
standing, beseeching him, and saying : ''Come 
over into Macedonia and help us. ' * And when 
he had seen the vision, straightway he and 
his associates sought to go forth into Macedo- 
nia, concluding that God had called them to 
preach the gospel there. ^ 

3. Paul made three extended missionary 
tours. On the first he and Barnabas preached 
in Cyprus, Perga, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, 
lyystra, Derbe, and Attalia. ^ They made many 
converts; among them was Sergius Paulus, a 
man of understanding. Some were jealous of 
their success and oppoj^ed and blasphemed. In 
one city Paul was stoned and dragged out and 
left for dead. On the completion of this tour 
they returned to Antioch and gathered the 
church together, and rehearsed all that God had 
done with them, and ho v/ he had opened a door 
of faith to the Gentiles. The second tour 



4. Acts xvi: 6, 7. 5. Acts xvi: 9, 10. 6. Acts xiii, xiv. 



MISSIONS IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 65 

covered much more ground than the first. On 
this Paul had Silas as an associate. They went 
through Syria and Cilicia confirming the 
churches. They also visited Derbe, Lystra, 
Phrygia, Galatia, Troas, Samothracia, Neapo- 
lis, Philippi, Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessa- 
lonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Cse- 
sarea, Jerusalem, and then returned to Anti- 
och. This tour is memorable in missionary 
annals because on it Europe was entered. In 
Philippi, they were arrested and scourged and 
imprisoned. In Athens Paul delivered his 
great discourse on Mars Hill. On his third 
tour Paul went through Galatia and Phrygia, 
and preached in Ephesus, Corinth, Macedonia, 
Troas, Miletus, Tyre, Csesarea and Jerusalem. 
He was told by the Spirit that in every city 
bonds and afflictions awaited him. None of 
these things moved him ; neither did he 
count his life as of any account to himself, if 
he could finish his course with joy and the 
ministry which he had leceived of the Lord 
Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of 
God.^ 

4. Paul spent considerable time in large 
cities. From these he and his helpers evangel- 
ized the country round about. He spent two 

7. Acts xx: 23, 24. 



66 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

years in Ephesus. One result of this was that 
all proconsular Asia heard the word of the 
Lord, both Jews and Greeks. ^ In like manner 
from Antioch in Pisidia the word of the Lord 
was spread throughout all that region. ^ He 
dwelt a year and six months in Corinth, preach- 
ing the word of God. This was a large and 
rich and corrupt city. He had been antagon- 
ized by the Jews. The Lord appeared to him 
in the night by a vision and said : ' ' Be not 
afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for 
I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee 
to harm thee: for I have much people in this 
city."^^ Paul gathered a number of young men 
about him and trained them and set them to 
work. Among these were Silas, Timothy, 
Titus, Epaphras. It was impossible for him 
to do all the work that needed to be done. 

5. Paul spoke much about the position and 
duty to which the Lord called him. "Inas- 
much, then, as I am an apostle of Gentiles; I 
glorify my ministry. "^^ ''Unto me who am 
less than the least of all saints, was this grace 
given, that I should preach imto the Gentiles 
the unsearchable riches of Christ.*'^^ " I am 
debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both 



8. Acts xix: 10, 17. 9. Acts xiv: 1-3. 10. Acts xviii: 9-11. 
11. Rom. xi: 13. 12. Eph. iii: 8. 



MISSIONS IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 6/' 

to the wise and to the foolish."^' He was 
ready and eager even to preach in Rome. Each 
race was proud of its history ; Paul felt that 
there was no difference between them, because 
the same Lord is Lord of all and is rich unto 
all them that call on him. It was his heart's 
desire and prayer to God for the chosen people 
that they might be saved. He said: " For I 
could wish that I myself were anathema from 
Christ for my brethren's sake, m}^ kinsmen 
according to the flesh." ^^ He was solicit- 
ous about them, but not for them only. He 
asks: ''Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not 
the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles 
also; if so be that God is one, and he shall justify 
the circumcision by faith, and the uncircum- 
cision through faith." ^' He was ambitious to 
preach everywhere. Speaking of his own work 
he said, '' For I will not dare to speak of any 
things save those which Christ wrought 
through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, 
by word and deed, in the power of signs and 
wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit ; so 
that from Jerusalem, and round about even 
unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gos- 
pel of Christ, yea, making it my aim so to 
preach the gospel, not where Christ was already 

13. Rom. i: 1-i. 14. Rom. ix: 3. 15. Rom. iii: 29, 30. 



68 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

named, that I might not build upon another 
man's foundation ; but as it is written, They 
shall see, to whom no tidings of him came, and 
they who have not heard shall understand. " ^ ^ 
He preached wherever he could find an audi- 
ence, and sealed his testimony with his blood. 

16. Rom. xv: 18-21. 



QUESTIONS. 

For what purpose did the Lord appear to Saul? 
Where was he at the time ? How soon did he begin 
to preach ? In what places ? Where did he want to 
stay ? Who drove him out ? How long did Barnabas 
and Saul remain in Antioch? How came they to 
leave ? How many tours did Paul make ? What 
places did he visit on each ? When did he enter Eu- 
rope ? In what cities did he spend some time? 
What young men did he train and put to work ? How 
did he feel about the salvation of the Jews ? How 
about the Gentiles ? 



CHAPTER IX. 

MISSIONS IN THK EARLY CHRISTIAN AGES. 

I The early church was pre-eminently a 
missionary church. In his parting command 
our Lord said to his disciples: **Thus it is 
written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise 



MISSIONS IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN AGES. 69 

again from the dead the third day; and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name unto all the nations/' 
They drank into his spirit, and, constrained by 
his love, they diligently sought to accomplish 
his purpose. They entered every open door, 
and preached whether the people would hear 
or forbear. The words of the prophet de- 
scribed their activity: *' Their sound went 
out into all the earth, and their words 
unto the ends of the world." Because of 
their incessant evangelism Christ could use 
the bold imagery of Isaiah and say, '' I w^as 
found of them that sought me not; I became 
manifest unto them that asked not of me." In 
the Epistle to the Colossians Paul speaks of the 
gospel, and says it was preached in all creation 
under heaven Tradition tells us that it was 
preached by the apostles in Egypt, Arabia, 
Persia, Mesopotamia, Parthia. Asia Minor, 
Greece, Italy, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and as 
far east as the frontiers of India. These 
men committed the truth which they had 
received to faithful men, and charged them 
to teach others. We have every reason 
to believe that the age succeeding the apos- 
tolic was intensely missionary. The gospel 
was carried, not only by trained evangelists. 



70 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

but also by merchants, by captives taken in 
war, by travelers, by soldiers of Rome, and by 
barbarians who served in the army, and by 
noble women who were married to pagan 
princes. Every Christian was a missionary; 
every church was a rallying and a radiating 
center. The whole body of believers was 
engaged in a deadly conflict with the powers 
of evil and with the faiths of paganism. Like 
their Lord and his apostles they had no doubt 
whatever as to the ultimate and universal 
triumph of the gospel. 

2. Before the time of Constantine the 
gospel was preached in all the great cities of 
the Empire. Friends and foes are agreed as to 
its conquests. Thus Tacitus says: ''This 
detestable superstition broke out on all sides, 
not only in Judea, but in the city of Rome 
itself. At first, they only were apprehended 
who confessed themselves of that sect; after- 
wards a vast multitude was discovered by 
them/' Pliny in writing to Trajan said: 
''Suspending all judicial proceedings, I have 
recourse to you for advice; for it has appeared 
to me a matter highly deserving consideration, 
especially on account of the great number of 
persons who are in danger of suffering; for 
many of all ages, and of every rank, of both 



MISSIONS IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN AGES. 71 

sexes alike, are accused, and will be accused. 
Nor has the contagion of this superstition seized 
cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the 
open country." The temples were deserted, 
and the sacred solemnities were ignored, and 
the sacrificial victims found few purchasers. 
Gibbon was no friend of Christianity. His 
testimony is all the stronger on that account. 
He says: ** While the Roman Empire was 
invaded by open violence, or undermined by 
slow decay, a pure and humble religion gently 
insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew 
up in silence and obscurity, derived new 
vigor from opposition, and finally erected the 
triumphant banner of the cross on the ruins 
of the capitol.'' 

3. Tertullian says: '* We are but of yes- 
terday, and, lo, we fill the whole Empire — 
your cities, your islands, your fortresses, 3^our 
municipalities, your councils, nay, even the 
camp, the sections, the palace, the senate, the 
forum." Again: ''In whom have all the 
nations believed, but in the Christ who is al- 
ready come? In him believe the Parthians, 
the Medes, the Elamites, the dwellers in Meso- 
potamia, in Armenia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, in 
Pontus, and Asia, in Pamphylia, in Egypt, and 
in the parts of Libya beyond Cyrene, inhabited 



72 HAND BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

by Romans, Jews, and proselytes. This is 
the faith of several tribes of Getulians, the 
Moors, the Spaniards, and the various nations 
of Gaul. The parts of Britain, inaccessible to 
the Romans, but subject to Christ, hold the 
same faith, as do also the Sarmatians, the 
Dacians, the Germans, the Scythians, and 
many other nations in provinces and islands 
unknown to us, and which we must fail to enu- 
merate." Justin Martyr speaks to the same 
effect: ** There is not a single race of men. 
Barbarians, Greek, or by whatever name they 
may be called, warlike or nomadic, homeless 
or dwelling in tents, or leading a pastoral life, 
among whom prayers and thanksgivings are 
not offered in the name of Jesus the crucified, 
to the Father and Creator of all things " 
Pressense's account of the steady, forward 
march of the church is as follows: '^ The em- 
issaries of the church go far and wide over the 
vast field open to Christian labor. The gospel 
is spread over the whole of Asia Minor; it 
reaches the borders of India; penetrates the 
deserts of Africa; and touches the heart of 
Egyptian Africa. The great apostle and his 
companions carried it into Greece, to the very 
center of ancient civilization. It reaches the 
very capital of the empire Everywhere 



MISSIONS IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN AGES. 73 

flourishing churches flame out like beacons 
through the darkness of the pagan night." 
The islands bordering the coast of Asia re- 
ceived the gospel from the mainland. Histo- 
rians tell us that in the early Christian ages 
the truth was preached as far as the limits of 
the Roman empire, and in some places far be- 
yond these limits. The whole church of that 
period was one vast missionary organization; 
all its energies were concentrated upon the 
task assigned it by our Lord, that of expelling 
debasing superstitions and conveying into every 
heart the ennobling influences of the Christian 
religion. There can be no doubt as to the 
early, wide, and, within certain limits, abso- 
lutely irresistible diffusion of the faith once 
for all delivered to the saints. 

4 The ten persecutions by which paganism 
vsought to destroy the power which ignorance 
feared, reveal the missionary activity and tri- 
umphs of that period. The Romans were usu- 
ally tolerant. In the Pantheon there was room 
for all the gods. When a nation was con- 
quered its deities were brought to the capital 
and installed there. For a time Christianity 
was ignored. Its Founder had died on the 
cross; his followers had no wealth and no posi- 
tion. But when ten emperors sought to crush 



74 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

the faith and used all the power at their dis- 
posal in the attempt, we can understand that 
the gospel was filling the world. Rulers and 
priests and people were panic-stricken. Their 
faiths and their craft were in danger. The gos- 
pel made no compromise and entered into no 
truce with existing systems. As Aaron's rod 
swallowed up the rods of the magicians, so the 
new faith swallowed up the old. 

5. Early in the fourth century Constantine 
became a Christian. He and Maxentius were 
contending for the Empire. He saw the cross 
in the sky and heard the words: '' In this sign 
thou shalt conquer. ' ' At the Milvian bridge 
his antagonist was overthrown. The year after 
his conversion he issued an edict of toleration. 
Soon after he forbade all labor on Sunday, ex- 
cept the emancipation of a slave. He abol- 
ished crucifixion, infanticide, private divina- 
tion, gladiatorial games, and cruel and licen- 
tious rites . One of his successors on the throne 
issued an edict which run s thus : ' * It is our will 
and pleasure that none of our subjects, whether 
magistrates or private citizens, however exalted 
or however humble may be their rank and con- 
dition, shall presume, in any city or in anyplace, 
to worship an inanimate idol by the sacrifice of 
a guiltless victim ' ' A great change had taken 



THE CONVERSION OF THE GOTHS, ETC. 75 

place when what had been the consolation of the 
slave and the fugitive in the catacombs had be- 
come the creed of the statesman and the magis- 
trate, and the cross was blazoned on the banner 
of the empire. Surely the world was turned 
upside down ! 

QUESTIONS. 

How did the early church feel about the world- 
wide triumph of the gospel? How did Christ and 
his apostles feel and speak on this subject ? How far 
was the gospel carried while the apostles lived? Did 
its conquest cease at their death? Who helped to 
carry the gospel from place to place ? How did 
Tacitus speak of the new faith ? What is the testi- 
mony of Pliny and Gibbon ? How do the friends of 
the truth speak ? What do we learn from the perse- 
cutions ? What from the conversion of Constantine ? 



CHAPTER X. 

THK CONVERSION OF THE GOTHS, FRANKS, 
ENGLISH, IRISH, AND SCOTS. 

I . The gospel was carried to the Goths, so 
we are told, by Roman soldiers and by captives. 
The names of these evangelists are not known. 
At the Council of Nicea the Goths were repre- 
sented by their bishop, Theophilus. Ulfilas 



76 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

is known as the Apostle of the Goths. He 
devoted his life to this people. He invented 
an alphabet and translated the Bible into their 
language. Max Miiller has said: '' Ulfilas 
must have been a man of extraordinary power 
to conceive for the first time the idea of trans- 
lating the Bible into the vulgar language of his 
people." All European languages, save Latin 
and Greek, were deemed barbarous What 
Ulfilas did for the Goths was done for other 
nations. Gregory introduced the gospel into 
Armenia, and made a convert of the king. 
Armenia was thus the first country to adopt 
Christianity as the national religion Miesrob 
gave an alphabet and a Bible in their own 
tongue to his countrymen. Thus it has come to 
pass that while Armenia was conquered by Zor- 
oastrians and Mohammedans, the people have 
clung to Christianity. Speaking of the conquests 
of the gospel in that time Jerome says: '' So the 
Armenian lays down his quiver, the Huns are 
learning the Psalter, the frosts of Scythia glow 
with the warmth of faith, the ruddy armies of 
the Goths bear about with them the tabernacles 
of the church." Chrysostom founded a col- 
lege in Constantinople in which Gothic youths 
were trained to preach. He redeemed captives 
and made missionaries of them. When an 



THE CONVERSION OF THE GOTHS, ETC. 77 

exile he labored as a missionary. Speaking 
to the cultured people of Constantinople of 
the transforming power of the gospel, he 
pointed to the Goths and said: "Thus have 
you witnessed to-day the most savage race of 
men standing together with the lambs of the 
church; one pasture, one fold for all, one table 
set before all/' 

2. France had her confessors and martyrs 
as early as the second century. Pothinus, 
a missionary bishop, laid dowm his life at the 
age of ninety. Irenaeus, the pupil of Poly- 
carp, was his successor. Martin of Tours did 
much for the extension of the gospel. He 
mustered an army and destroyed idols, temples, 
and consecrated groves. When he died two 
cities contended for the honor of his sepulture. 
It was reported that miracks were wrought at 
his tomb. A century later the nation became 
Christian. King Clovis had married a Chris- 
tian princess In the battle of Tolbiac he 
called upon his own gods in vain. In his dis- 
tress he called upon the God of his wife and 
vowed to be baptized in case he was victorious. 
He won the day and kept his pledge. On 
Christmas he and three thousand Franks were 
baptized. The bishop said to him: *' Sicam- 
brian,with meekness bow thy head: burn that 



78 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

thou didst adore; adore that which thou didst 
burn." 

3. St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, was 
born near Dumbarton, Scotland. At the age 
of sixteen he was kidnapped by pirates and sold 
in Ireland. He served his master as a herd 
boy for six years. In that time he says: ** I 
was re-formed by the Lord, and he hath fitted 
me for being at this day w^hat was once far 
enough from me, that I should concern myself 
or take trouble for the salvation of others, 
when I used not to think even of my own." 
Escaping to the continent and being educated 
for the ministry, he returned to Ireland as a 
missionary In his Confession he said: '*I 
declare solemnly in truth, and with rejoicing 
before God and his holy angels, that I never 
had any occasion, except the gospel and its 
promises, for ever returning to that people 
from whom I had made my escape." He met 
the king and the priests at Tara and made a 
favorable impression on the royal mind. He 
was allowed to stay and preach. He w^on the 
hearts of all classes. He established schools 
for boys and girls. He covered the land with 
monasteries, and gathered the women into so- 
cieties. He invented an alphabet, superin- 
tended the copying of ancient books, and pro- 



THE CONVERSION OF THE GOTHS, ETC. 79 

vided for the carrying on of the work after 
his death. He preached for more than thirty 
years and left Ireland a Christian land. He 
founded missionary schools and colleges for 
training men in secular and sacred culture. 
Bede tells us that many of the nobility and 
middle classes of England left home and went 
to Ireland either to study the Word of God or 
to live a stricter life. Ireland became the Isle 
of the Saints and the University of the West. 
For centuries after St. Patrick's death the 
men who were trained in his schools carried 
the gospel to heathen tribes in different parts 
of Europe. 

4. Columba, the Apostle of Scotland, was 
of royal lineage. He was born in Donegal, ire- 
land. He and twelve associates left Derry for 
Scotland in boats made of rods and hides. 
They established themselves on the island of 
lona. Here they built their monastery and 
training school. Here Columba made three 
hundred copies of the New Testament with his 
own hand and many portions of the Old Testa- 
ment. From lona, Aidan, Finan, Colman, and 
other famous men went forth to evangelize the 
Scots and the greater part of the Saxon hep- 
tarchy. Wherever men could be gathered Co- 
lumba preached to them, and wherever converts 



80 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

were made he left some one to minister to their 
needs, whilst he pressed on to preach to tribes 
yet in darkness. He carried the gospel to 
Scotland and to the remotest isles of the Ork- 
neys and to the Hebrides. Columba, so says 
one writer, stands before us as one of the great 
missionary heroes of the church. He has 
earned for himself a name which shall be held 
in everlasting remembrance; for his is the 
glory of having kindled a light in those north- 
ern lands which has never since been utterly 
extinguished. 

5. The pupils of St. Patrick and Columba 
went everywhere, planting wherever they went 
the banner of the cross. They swarmed like 
bees into the dark places of heathen Europe. 
Wherever they went they founded religious 
houses, which in their turn became centers 
of light and life. Columbanus and his twelve 
companions left Ireland for Burgundy. The 
king wanted them to settle near the court. 
They wanted to live among the ignorant, the 
barbarous, the heathen. They settled in a for- 
est, and were in peril of robbers and wild 
beasts. One of his pupils was sent to Switzer- 
land. Columbanus evangelized Lombardy. 
He it was who took possession of Pavia, 
Tarentum, and Bobbio among the Apennines in 



THE CONVERSION OF THE GOTHS, ETC. 81 

the name of the Lord. Kilian preached in 
Franconia. Fridolin won the Alemanni to 
Christ, and Willibroard carried the truth into 
Batavia, Priesland and Westphalia. 

6. Gregory the Great sent Augustine and 
forty helpers to evangelize England. While 
yet a monk Gregory saw some boys exposed 
for sale in Rome. He was told that they were 
Angles. He said, "Not Angles, but angels, if 
only they had the gospel." Gregory wanted 
to go to England as a missionary and started. 
He was recalled and elected Pope. He never 
forgot that scene in the market place, and never 
lost his desire to see the English won to the 
faith. Christianity entered England in the 
time of the Romans. When the Saxons came 
they destro3^ed every trace of the new faith 
and erected pagan temples and altars again. 
Augustine heard of the savagery of the peo- 
ple, and his heart failed him. He returned to 
Rome. The Pope sent him back. He met 
the king and was accorded a hearing. Ethel- 
bert had a Christian wife. After a time the 
king and 10,000 people were baptized. Other 
kings followed his example. Within a cen- 
, tury after the arrival of Augustine all England 
was evangelized. Princes and people aposta- 
tized more than once. The missionaries were 



82 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

discouraged at times and some of them left the 
field. But the cause was God's, and it could 
not fail. 



QUESTIONS. 

Who carried the gospel first to the Goths ? Who 
was the apostle of that people ? What methods did 
he employ? What did Chrysostom do to aid this 
work? What is his testimony as to its efficacy ? Is it 
known how the gospel first reached France ? What 
men labored and suffered for the truth's sake? Who 
was the king of the Franks ? What constrained him 
to be baptized? Did any of the people follow his 
example ? What did the bishop tell him to do? Who 
carried the gospel to Ireland ? What is known of this 
man? What were some of his methods? Who went 
from Ireland to Scotland as evangelists ? Where did 
they establish their home ? Where did they preach ? 
What else did they do ? What Pope sent Augustine 
to England ? What led him to do this ? What was 
the condition of the Anglo-Saxons at that time? 
Who was king of Kent ? What followed the preach- 
ing of Augustine ? 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE CONVERSION OF THE TEUTONS, SCANDI- 
NAVIANS AND SLAVS. 

I. Boniface is known in history as the 
apostle of Germany, and as the father of Ger- 



THE CONVERSION OF THE TEUTONS. ETC. 83 

man civilization. He was born in England in 
680 He was educated for the priesthood. Hear- 
ing of the perils and heroism of the mission- 
aries on the continent he wished to join them. 
With three others he started for Friesland. 
The way was closed against him and he had 
to return. He ventured again and succeeded 
far beyond the expectation of his friends. 
Christian churches rose on every side; heathen 
temples were destroyed ; a vast number be- 
came obedient to the faith. In twenty years 
he baptized 100,000 Germans. He declined 
the offer of a bishopric and plunged into the 
forests of Hesse. Here he founded religious 
establishments, baptized princes and people, 
and provided for the permanence of the work 
by translating and circulating the Scriptures. 
He showed his courage by cutting down a 
sacred oak in Giesmar. This tree was sacred 
to Thor, the god of thunder, and was a great 
obstacle in the way of the gospel. With axe 
in hand he approached the tree and began to 
cut it down. The pagans expected him to be 
smitten by the god. When the tree fell, they 
felt that Thor was unworthy of worship, be- 
cause he could not protect himself. They cried: 
'^The Lord, he is God.'' From the timber 
Boniface made an oratory in which the true 



84 HAND BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

God was worshiped. He preached and labored 
in Thuringia and Franconia, and was made 
archbishop of Mentz. He induced many lay 
and clerical workers to follow him from Eng- 
land. At the age of seventy five he heard of 
a savage tribe, and resigning his great office, 
started to preach the gospel to them. As he 
was not confident of returning he took a shroud 
with him. He was met by the savages and 
killed. Others carried on the work till the 
ferocious Saxons were brought under the yoke 
of Christ. 

2. Anskar has been called the apostle of 
the North. The Vikings, in the ninth cen- 
tury, swept down on the shores of France, 
Germany and England. They fought their 
way into the heart of the empire; they pil- 
laged, burnt and destroyed the fairest and 
strongest towns. It was at this time that God 
proposed to send the gospel into all these 
northern regions. The first mission was es- 
tablished in Denmark. Anskar of Corbie was 
the missionary. He founded a school, bought 
and received boys from the people, and trained 
them for the ministry. After two years the 
people rebelled against their king, and Anskar 
was obliged to retire. He was invited to 
Sweden. On the w^ay he was attacked by 



THE CONVERSION OF THE TEUTONS, ETC. 85 

pirates and stripped of all his possessions. His 
companions wanted to return, but he would 
not hear to it. He reached the capital and was 
allowed to preach, and it was not long before 
the king's counselor embraced the faith and 
threw his influence into the scale. Anskar 
was appointed archbishop of Hamburg. The 
pagans, alarmed at the progress of the gospel, 
swept down and sacked Hamburg and burned 
the church. He was driven out among strang- 
ers with no means of support. As he gazed 
at the desolation he said: ''The Lord gave, 
and the Lord hath taken aw^ay; and blessed be 
the name of the Lord." Gradually, however, 
kings and nobles and people w^ere enlightened 
and came to regard the new faith with favor. 
They came to see that it was to their advan- 
tage to serve the true God, and his son, Jesus 
Christ, rather than Odin. The faith and love 
and wisdom and patience of Anskar brought 
forth much fruit. He spent thirty-four years 
among these fierce Norsemen, seeking in every 
way their spiritual and temporal good. On 
his death-bed he regretted that he had not 
been permitted to win the martyr's crowm. 
He died murmuring the words : " Have merc}^ 
upon me, O God, according to thy loving 
kindness." 



86 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

3. The Bulgarians were the first of the 
Slavonic peoples to accept the gospel. The 
king, influenced by his sister, was baptized. 
He received a Greek archbishop who spread 
the faith among the Servians far and near. 
The Moravians had been compelled by Charle- 
magne to make a profession of Christianity. 
They sent to the Greek Emperor Michael say- 
ing: *'Send us teachers who may explain to 
us the Scriptures and their meaning." Method- 
ius and Constantine were sent. They invented 
an alphabet and translated the Gospels, the 
Acts, and other portions of the Bible. The 
word of the I^ord grew mightily and prevailed. 
But to some in the West a Slavonic version of 
the Scriptures was little less than heresy, and 
these men were summoned to Rome to give an 
account of themselves. The decision was in 
their favor. This version was read for a thou- 
sand years, until the Russian language dis- 
placed the dead Slavonic. The duke of Bo- 
hemia was on a visit to the king of Moravia. 
At dinner he was seated on the floor. Being 
told that he would have a seat higher than all 
princes if he became a Christian, he and thirty 
attendants were baptized at once. 

4. Vladimir was the first Russian king to 
be baptized. His grandmother, Olga, em- 



THE CONVERSION OF THE TEUTONS, ETC. 87 

braced Christianity in Constantinople. She 
tried in vain to influence her son to do the 
same. Her grandson was more teachable. He 
sent an embassy to visit Mohammedans and 
Jews and Christians to inquire as to their faith 
and worship. They reported unfavorably of 
all except Constantinople. They were told 
that the angels came down and took part in 
the ser^nces. The king wanted to marry the 
emperor's sister, and finding that he could not 
gain her except by accepting Christianity, he 
was baptized. The great idol Peroun was 
dragged out from the temple and scourged and 
thrown into the river. He commanded all his 
subjects, on pain of his displeasure, to be bap- 
tized. They flocked to the river and stood up 
to their necks in its waters, while the priests 
read the service. The bishops went from 
place to place and built schools and churches 
and taught and preached in them. Bernard 
undertook to preach to the Pomeranians. He 
appeared in the garb of a beggar, with bare 
feet and tattered dress When he claimed that 
he was a messenger from God, the people asked 
how it was possible that the great Lord would 
send a man in such despicable garb, without 
even shoes to his feet. They thought he was 
mad, and putting him on board a ship, they 



88 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

told him to preach to the fish and the fowls. 
Bishop Otho took up the work of Bernard. 
Being a man of more wisdom, he had more 
success. In one place he baptized 7,000 ; in 
another so many that his strength failed. The 
people of Stettin said to him: ''What have we 
to do with you ? We will not put away our 
national customs, and we are well content with 
our present religion. Keep your own faith to 
yourselves, and intermeddle not with us." He 
relieved the poor, visited the sick, and redeemed 
captives, and in so doing secured a favorable 
bearing for the gospel. The old temples and 
idols were demolished. 

5. The Prussians were as savage and su- 
perstitious as any other people in all Europe. 
Polygamy and slavery and infanticide were 
prevalent; the sick, the aged, and the de- 
formed were put out of the way; wives were 
slaves and were burned with the dead bodies 
of their husbands. When Adelbert attempted 
to explain to them who he was and why he 
had come to them they said: ''Away with 
such fellows from our land. These are they 
who cause our crops to fail, our trees to de- 
cay, our herds to sicken. Depart from us or 
expect instant death." He and his associates 
suffered as martyrs. Just before his death 



THE CONVERSION OF THE TEUTONS, ETC. 89 

Adelbert said: '*We know that we suffer this 
for the name of our dear Lord, whose might 
is above all might, whose beauty is above all 
beauty, and whose grace is inexpressible. 
What can be more blessed than to lay down 
life for Him ?" Bruno and Gottfried w^ere his 
successors, and they accomplished something. 
The people rose in their might and destroyed 
the churches and put many of the converts to 
the sword. The Teutonic Knights came to the 
rescue; they built castles and introduced colo- 
nists from Germany. In course of time 
paganism with its crimes and abominations 
disappeared. 



QUESTIONS. 

Who was the apostle of Germany ? Where was 
he born ? What led him to become a missionary ? 
In what lands did he toil ? What did he accomplish ? 
What incidents are related of him ? What office did 
he fill? How and where did he die? Who were the 
Vikings ? Who was the apostle of the North ? Where 
did he labor ? What did he do ? How did the native 
people regard his work ? What Slavonic people first 
accepted the gospel ? Who led the king to Christ ? 
What men translated parts of the Bible for the Mora- 
vians ? What Russian King was first baptized ? What 
were his motives? Did the people obey his com- 
mand ? How was the great idol treated ? Who 
preached to the Pomeranians ? What was their fate ? 



90 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

Who evangelized Prussia ? What was the condition 
of the people ? How were the missionaries received ? 
Who came to the rescue ? Were their weapons car- 
nal or spiritual ? 



CHAPTER XII. 

FOUR CKNTURIKS OF COMPARATIVE 
INACTION. 

1 . At the close of the fourteenth century all 
Europe was nominally Christian. Then mis- 
sions on a large scale ceased. For four cen- 
turies very little was accomplished or at- 
tempted. Single men or groups of workers 
representing the different religious orders went 
out and did something, but the church as a 
whole was asleep. It was in the last decade of 
the eighteenth century that William Carey's 
voice rang out like a fire bell at midnight and 
awoke the people of God from the slumber of 
ages to recognize and perform their duty. 

2. Francis of Assisi was led to give up a 
life of ease and affluence, and to espouse pov- 
erty as his bride. He thought he heard the 
voice of God saying: ''My temple is falling 
into ruins, restore it." He founded an order 
of monks and sent them out as missionaries. 



FOUR CENTURIES OF COMPARATIVE INACTION. 91 

Hitherto most of the monks lived in the des- 
ert. They sought to get away from the sin 
and temptation of the world. Francis sent 
his followers to tend the leper, to instruct the 
ignorant, and to preach the gospel. He went 
as a missionary to the Saracens. At the time 
there was a price on the head of every Chris- 
tian. In his mendicant's gray robe and cord 
of self denial he entered the enemy's camp. 
He said to the Sultan: "I am not sent of man 
but of God, to show thee the way of salvation." 
His courage seemed madness, and his life 
was spared. Not only so, but he was sent 
away with honor. Franciscans and Domini- 
cans went to China, and, had they been wise, 
might have w^on the emperor and the nation to 
the faith of Christ. 

3. Ra3^mund 'Lull gave his life to save 
Jews and Mohammedans. For two centuries 
the name of this man was the best known and 
perhaps the most influential in Europe. He 
was a great man and a missionary hero. 
Until he was thirty years of age he lived a 
life of gaiety and guilty pleasure. The Lord 
appeared to him in a vision. He seemed to 
see him hanging on the cross. This was the 
turning point in his life. He resolved to ded- 
icate himself henceforth to the service of the 



92 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

Lord. His thoughts turned to the Saracens 
as being most in need of the gospel. He 
knew that the Crusades had failed He felt 
that the Holy Land and the Holy Sepulcher 
could be won back far more effectually by 
preaching the word of truth than by force of 
arms. He prevailed upon the church to found 
professorships of oriental languages in the 
universities of Paris, Oxford and Salamanca. 
A monastery was founded at Majorca, where 
students were instructed in Arabic and trained 
in the Mohammedan controversy. He bought 
a slave to teach him Arabic. He went to 
Tunis and challenged the Mohammedan doc- 
tors to a discussion. He defeated them in ar- 
gument, and was banished by the Sultan. He 
was told that he would be stoned if he re- 
turned. After years of labor in other fields, 
he went back and told the Mohammedans that 
the religion of Christ was true, and that of 
their prophet false. He was asked how he 
could expose his life to such certain peril. He 
said: "Death has no terrors for a sincere serv- 
ant of Christ " He was banished again, but 
he did not give up in despair. He had labored 
for forty-five years in the good cause ; he had 
been stoned and scourged and imprisoned ; he 
was old and poor ; but still intent on the same 



FOUR CENTURIES OF COMPARATIVE INACTION. 93 

object, and determined to persevere in it till 
death. He crossed to Africa again and 
preached Jesus to the people. They fell on 
him and dragged him out of the city and 
stoned him to death. 

4. Francis Xavier was one of the founders 
of the Society of Jesus. He belonged to an an- 
cient and honorable famil}-. He entered the 
University of Paris as a student; later he became 
a teacher in this famous school. His eloquence, 
beaut}^ and learning attracted people from all 
quarters. He gave up his position and went to 
India as a missionary. He sought to Christian- 
ize the pearl fishers of the Comorin coast. His 
method was peculiar. He translated the Creed, 
the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, 
and the Ave Maria, and committed them to 
memory. Then, with bell in hand, he went 
through the villages. To the people that gath- 
ered about him he recited his translations, and 
asked them if they believed. On their assent- 
ing he baptized them. He baptized a whole 
village in a da3\ His hands often failed him 
through the fatigue of baptizing so many. In 
Travancore, so it is said, he made 10,000 con- 
verts in a month. He went further east, to Ma- 
lacca, to Japan, and to China. He found the 
gates of the Celestial Empire closed. More than 



94 HziND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

once he was heard saying: '' O Rock, rock, 
when wilt thou open ? " He died at the age of 
forty-six. His hair was white, not with age, 
but with constant toil and suffering. His last 
words were: '' In thee, Lord, have I hoped; let 
me never be confounded.'^ Other members of 
this order found their way to Egypt, to Abys- 
sinia, to Peru, to Paraguay, to Mexico, to Cali- 
fornia, to the Hudson Bay Territory, to Canada, 
and to the United States. They followed the 
early settlers, and shared all their privations 
and perils. Many of them suffered martyrdom 
There are few brighter pages in human history 
than those that record the heroism and devotion 
of the Jesuits in North America. 

5 lyUther thought it was too late to do any- 
thing to save the non- Christian nations. He 
said: '' Daniel's four empires, Babylon, Persia, 
Greece, and Rome, are gone Another hun- 
dred years and all will be over. The gospel is 
despised. God's word will disappear for want 
of any to preach it." Melancthon and Calvin 
felt very much as lyUther did. For three hun- 
dred years after the Reformation nothing was 
done on a large scale to bear the gospel to the 
unsaved nations. The heathen were spoken of 
as ^'dogs and sw^ne." What was done was 



FOUR CENTURIES OF COMPARATIVE INACTION. 95 

the work of a few earnest souls; the majority 
of the Reformed Churches were indifferent. 

6. Some godly men sought to evangelize 
the American Indians. John Eliot spent fifty- 
eight years in this work. He translated the 
Bible into their language; he established a col- 
lege in which pastors and teachers were trained. 
He lived to see several thousand converts. His 
motto was: ''Prayer and pains, with faith in 
the Lord Jesus, will accomplish anything." 
David Brainerd spent his life among these 
people. His prayer was: " Here am I, Lord. 
Send me! Send me to the end^^qf the earth; 
send me to the rough, the savage pagans of the 
wilderness; send me from all that is called 
comfort in the earth; send me even to death 
itself, if it be but in thy service and to promote 
thy kingdom." He longed to be a flame of 
fire, continually glowing in the divine service, 
and building up Christ's kingdom to his dying 
moment. He died at the age of thirty, but he 
did not live and die in vain. Such men as 
Jonathan Edwards, Henry Marty n, William 
Carey, and A.J. Gordon and many others, were 
greatly influenced by his writings and char- 
acter. 

7. The Danes were the first Protestants to 
enter India. Ziegenbalg reached Tranquebar 



96 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

in 1706. The pious king sent him out; but 
the Danish Kast Company was opposed to 
missions and gave orders that every obstacle 
should be thrown in his way. He learned the 
language from the children. He translated the 
New Testament and part of the Old. Schwartz 
entered India in 1750, and spent half a century 
in that field. He was trusted and honored by 
all who knew him. Hyder Ali would treat 
with no one but Schwartz. He had no confi- 
dence in the words or treaties of any other 
man. He opened schools and orphanages, 
gathered congregations of believers; he caused 
the wilderness to bloom like Eden. Kiernander 
joined the mission in 1758. He lived until the 
arrival of Carey. 

8. The Moravians are the greatest mission- 
ary people on the globe. This is their pecul- 
iarity. They began their work in 1732. At 
that time they numbered only six hundred. 
They were living on the estate of Count 
Zinzendorf, of Saxony. The Count and his 
wife threw away all ideas of rank, surrendered 
their property, and became leaders in the 
movement. In twenty- five years the Moravians 
established eighteen missions. They went to 
Greenland, to Labrador, to Lapland, to Tartary, 
to the West Indians, to the Red Men of 



FOUR CENTURIES OF COMPARATIVE INACTION. 97 

America, to South Africa, and to New Zea- 
land. They shut themselves in with lepers 
and were willing to be sold as slaves, that they 
might have the privilege of preaching Christ 
to these people. In 150 years they sent out 
2,000 of their number to labor in the regions 
beyond. Every man and woman and child 
in the community is interested in the great 
missionary enterprise; it is their supreme con- 
cern. 

9 Several societies were organized in 
England and Scotland in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. British people were going 
out to settle in the New World. The people at 
home felt that they ought to have gospel privi- 
leges in their new homes. In 1649 the Long 
Parliament created the first Protestant Mission- 
ary Corporation. Oxford and Cambridge ap- 
proved the scheme. In 1701 the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel was organized. 
This society is yet strong and flourishing. It 
aimed at the conversion of pagans and colo- 
nists. John Wesley served it for two years in 
Georgia. Eight years later the Society for 
Propagating Christian Knowledge was organ- 
ized in Scotland. David Brainerd and Johna- 
than Edwards w^ere its agents. In 1792 the 
English Baptist Society was organized. Four 



98 HAND BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

years later the Independents, Presbyterians, 
Methodists and Episcopalians united to form 
the lyondon Missionary Society. Since Christ 
is not divided, the founders of this society saw 
no reason why they and others could not co- 
operate. Unfortunately, this union did not 
continue. In 1799 the Church Missionary 
Society was organized. This great organiza- 
tion has a larger income than any other, and 
has missions in all parts of the world. 



QUESTIONS. 

How long did it take to Christianize Europe? For 
how many centuries was the church idle ? Was any- 
thing done in that time? What is known of Francis 
of A'ssisi and the order he founded ? Where did they 
go ? What did they do ? For whose salvation was 
Raymund Lull concerned? What did he attempt? 
What methods did he employ ? What was the meas- 
ure of his success? What was his fate? What was 
Xavier in his youth ? What society did he help 
organize ? To what countries did he go ? What was 
his method ? What is said as to the effect of his work? 
Did the Reformers send out missionaries? What was 
Ivuther^s feeling? What noted men labored among 
the Indians ? What was the motto of Eliot ? What 
was Brainerd*s desire ? What noted Danes labored in 
India ? What is the peculiarity of the Moravians ? 
Where did they plant missions? What English and 
Scot<5^h societies were organized before the beginning 
of thes^^resent century ? 



MISSIONS IN THE PRESENT CENTURY. 99 

CHAPTER XIII. 

MISSIONS IN THE PRESENT CENTURY. 

1. It is commonly said that the modern 
missions began with Carey. His sailing from 
England for India marks an epoch. In so 
speaking no one wishes to ignore the saintly 
workers that went out to the ends of the earth 
long before Carey was born. The seventeenth 
and eighteenth were centuries of great spiritual 
apathy. Christian people were not troubling 
themselves about the salvation of the heathen 
nations. When Carey appeared on the scene 
the fullness of the times had come. Cook's voy- 
ages, the French Revolution, and the War of 
Independence caused people to think of the 
brotherhood of all men. Colonists went out 
and occupied the lands that had been recently 
discovered. The Christian nations were thus 
brought face to face with the different forms of 
paganism. 

2. William Carey's writings and addresses 
led to the formation of the English Baptist 
Society. Before his ordination he was a dealer 
in second-hand shoes. God put it into the 
heart of this obscure cobbler to lead his people 
in the greatest movement of the century. As 



100 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

he mused the fire burned. He collected all 
the information that was then available about 
the population and religious condition of the 
world. Afterward, when he taught school, he 
told his pupils about the different nations and 
their religious beliefs I^ater still, when he 
made a plea for the unevangelized, in an assem- 
bly of preachers, he was told to be silent, that 
when the I^ord saw fit to convert the heathen, 
he would do it without any human aid. He 
sat down, but he could not but speak. The 
lyord had given him a message, and he could 
not be silent. A year later he was asked to 
preach before this same assembly. In the ser- 
mon of that day he dwelt upon two thoughts: 
" Expect great things from God;" " Attempt 
great things for God." The audience was 
moved, but was about to disperse. The 
preacher seized Andrew Fuller by the arm and 
asked; '' After all are you going again to do 
nothing?" His importunity prevailed. The 
next year a society was organized. Carey and 
Dr Thomas were sent to India. He and his 
associates translated the Bible into forty differ- 
ent languages and dialects, thereby giving 
380,000,000 people the Word of God in their 
own tongue. 

3. Soon after the present century began 



MISSIONS IN THE PRESENT CENTURY. 101 

some member of the church of Scotland sug- 
gested that something should be done towards 
the evangelization of the world. The leading 
men in the church declared that the idea was 
fanciful and laughable, yea, even dangerous and 
revolutionary. They maintained that no peo- 
ple who were not polished and refined in their 
manners could be profitably enlightened in 
religious truth. Moreover, they asserted that 
it would be improper and absurd to send the 
gospel abroad, while there remained a single 
individual at home without the means of re- 
ligious instruction. That was the time of 
spiritual coldness and sterility Pulpit orators 
had as little of Christ in their ministrations as 
had Cicero and Seneca. The salt had lost its 
saltness; how then could it save ? But there 
were men like Rrskine in the church who 
made their appeal to the Bible. They set 
forth its commands and promises, and so saved 
the church from continuing in criminal inactiv- 
ity. It was not long till a society was organ- 
ized, and young men of ability and education 
and consecration were sent out to preach Christ 
to the nations. 

4. The American Board, the first mis- 
sionary organization in the New World, was 
founded in 1810. The man used by God to 



102 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

start the work on this continent was Samuel J. 
Mills. His mother consecrated him to God 
as a missionary. In 1806 he entered Williams. 
College. Here he found a number of congen- 
ial spirits. They met frequently to pray for 
the conversion of the world. Once when a 
storm was coming up, they sought shelter 
under a haystack. They formed themselves 
into a society. No one was admitted to mem- 
bership who was not ready to go wherever and 
whenever the voice of duty might call. The 
American Board and the American Bible So- 
ciety were the fruits of that prayer meeting 
under the haystack. When these young men 
went to Andover they were joined by such 
men as Adoniram Judson and Samuel Newell. 
5. There are at the present time 267 so- 
cieties in existence for the sole purpose of car- 
rying the gospel to the unsaved nations. There 
are 4,525 stations, and 14,036 out-stations 
The male missionaries number 6,336, the fe- 
male, 5,675, and the native helpers, 60,164. 
There are 1,000,000 pupils in 7,000 Sunday 
schools, and 680,000 in day schools and col- 
leges and seminaries. The offerings for the 
last year aggregated $15,549, 243. Among the 
most valuable auxiliaries are the Bible and 
Tract Societies. The British and Foreign 



MISSIONS IN THE PRESENT CENTURY. 103 

Bible Society is the largest and most effective 
of these organizations. In the year 1800 a 
Welsh girl traveled many miles to get a Bible. 
This incident led a good man to think of the 
dearth of Bibles in that principality. It was 
proposed to organize a society to supply this 
need. Some one said: ''If for Wales, why 
not for the empire, and the world?" In 1804 
this great society was founded. The Bible So- 
cieties stand back of all the missionary organi- 
zations and materially aid their work. Nine- 
tenths of the human race can read in their own 
tongue the wonderful words of God, if they 
can read at all. Two hundred million copies 
of the Scriptures have been printed by these 
societies since their organization. 

6. Great changes in public sentiment 
respecting world-wide missions have taken 
place since Carey's time. One man objected 
to a purposed mission to Greenlanders, Lapps, 
Tartars and Japanese, on the ground that holy 
things should not be cast before swine Sydney 
Smith denounced all missionaries as vermin, 
and said that they should be caught and cracked 
and exterminated. Editors felt called of God 
to crush the rising spirit of missions The 
Kast India Company said, '' The sending of 
missionaries into our Eastern possessions is 



104 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

the maddest, most expensive, most unwar- 
ranted project that was ever proposed by a 
lunatic enthusiast . ' ' The Lieutenant- Governor 
of Bengal said recently, " In my judgment 
Christian missionaries have done more real and 
lasting good to the people of India than all 
other agencies combined.'' His feeling was 
that if missions did not exist it would be the 
duty of the Government to invent them. 
McKenzie sa^^s, '* Among the glories of the 
century none is greater than this. All other 
enterprises of beneficence must yield to this 
magnificent attempt to expel debasing super- 
stitions and convey into every heart the en- 
nobling influences of the Christian religion. ' ' 



QUESTIONS. 

Were there any missions before Carey's time? 
What is meant by saying modern missions began 
when he sailed for India ? What was Carey before he 
was called to preach? Who called him to India? 
What did he know about the different nations? How 
was his first plea received ? What are the leading 
thoughts in his great sermon? What did Carey (^o 
in India? How did the church of Scotland receive 
the suggestion to do something for the heathen 
nations ? What arguments were used ? How were 
their arguments confuted ? W^ho led in this move- 
ment in America? When was the first society organ- 
ized in the New World? Where did the young men 



HOME MISSIONS. 105 

in college pray ? How many societies are there now ? 
How many workers? How many converts? How 
much money was given last year? Has there been 
any change in public sentiment respecting missions ? 
What was the feeling a century ago? What is it now? 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HOMB MISSIONS. 

1. The earliest mission work done on this 
continent was done among the Red Men. Cath- 
olics and Protestants sought to win the Indians 
to the faith of the gospel. John Eliot, David 
Brainerd, and many other saintly and heroic 
men lived and died among these people. Most 
of ' ' the praying Indians ' ' and the Indians that, 
rejected Christianity have disappeared from the 
earth. Strangers have taken possCvSsion of 
their hunting grounds. Missionary work is 
still carried on among the remnants of the In- 
dian tribes. The latest statistics give 938 
laborers, 39,348 communicants, and 4,134 pu- 
pils in day and boarding schools. 

2. After the Revolution people began to 
go towards the west. Some forgot their spir- 
itual interests; others did not. While churches 
were organized in some places, ^ ' in many local- 



106 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

ities great immorality and religious destitution 
prevailed. ' ' It was no uncommon thing to find 
families who had not heard a sermon for five, 
or even ten years. Of West Virginia it was 
said that it was destitute of almost every kind 
of religious information. The people were gen- 
erally indifferent to religious subjects. One 
man wrote: *' I have seen enough of the west 
to know that, in a spiritual sense, large por- 
tions of it are growing up with briers and 
thorns.'^ It was said that one might travel 
hundreds of miles and in vain look for a single 
temple dedicated to Jehovah or a preacher of 
the gospel to break the bread of life to the per- 
ishing inhabitants. The consequence was that 
many of them, in regard to religious informa- 
tion, were approaching a state little better than 
heathenism. Good men felt that the life of the 
nation was in peril. They met and talked and 
prayed over the matter. They were convinced 
that vigorous efforts must be put forth to plant 
new churches and to propagate the institutions 
of religion, or both their civil and religious 
privileges would be lost. Feeling this they pro- 
ceeded to organize Home Missionary Societies. 
3. A magnificent work has been done 
within our own borders. Between the years 
1820 and 1894 the Christian people of the 



HOME MISSIONS. 107 

United States gave $143,636,176 for Home 
Missions. In the year 1894 their gifts so far as 
reported, aggregated $7,089,859. For fourteen 
years they averaged ^4,611,898. In that time 
the gifts for this cause have more than doubled. 
There are no complete statistics. The work 
done in cities, for the most part, is not included 
in these figures. There is much other work 
that is not reported. It is safe to sa}^ that not 
less than ten millions of dollars are given an- 
nually for the extension of the gospel in new 
and destitute fields in the United States. 

4. At the close of the Civil War there were 
over four million freedmen to be evangelized. 
Having been emancipated, they must be pro- 
tected and provided for. The Southern 
States were poor and could not do all that was 
needed. In view of their povert}^, they did 
wondrously well. They opened schools and 
encouraged the freedmen to learn, that they 
might improve their condition. Their efforts 
and sacrifices must be supplemented. The 
churches in the North heard this call of God 
and organized for effective service. They 
sent evangelists and teachers to work among 
this people. Their labors have been signally 
blessed of God. As the Negro population is 
nearly twice as great as it was at the close of 



108 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

the war, it will be seen that much more work 
remains to be done. 

5. In almost every large city special ef- 
forts are being made to reach the whole pop- 
ulation. Each year about a half million 
immigrants come to this country. Most of 
them settle in the cities. They come from 
Europe, from Africa and from Asia. They 
represent all faiths and no faith. These 
people must be evangelized. The churches of 
Christ owe this to them. It is not enough 
that they find here civil and religious liberty 
and opportunity to earn a livelihood: they 
must hear the gospel of the blessed God, if 
they are to be good citizens. 

6. Six societies are at work among the 
Mongolians on the Pacific Coast. Nearly 
every church seeks to bring the Chinese and 
Japanese under Christian influences. There 
are now 129 persons laboring among these 
people. The communicants number 17 10; 
the pupils in day and boarding schools, 4,764. 
The increase in the last eight years is most 
encouraging. The Mongolians respond to 
the claims of Christ, as other human beings 
do, and live lives that adorn the doctrine of 
God our Savior. 

7 . Professor Phelps said : ' ' As goes Amer- 



HOME MISSIONS. 109 

ica, so goes the world, in all that is vital to its 
moral welfare. Forecasting the future of Chris- 
tianity, as statesmen forecast the destiny of 
nations, we must believe that it will be what the 
future of this country is to be." Intelligent 
Christians accept these statements as axiomatic 
truths. America is the base of supplies. From 
America men and women must go out to evan- 
gelize the world; and from America must go 
the means to support them. Too much stress, 
therefore, cannot be laid on the necessity of the 
immediate and complete evangelization of the 
United States. 



QUESTIONS. 

Among whom was the first missionary work done 
in America ? Who w^ere some of the early workers ? 
Is any work carried on now among these people? 
What are the results ? What was the condition of the 
early settlers in the West ? What led good men to 
organize to preach the gospel at home ? Has the 
work grown and prospered? How much money is 
given a year for Home Missions? How much has 
been given in seventy-four years? Do these figures 
include all that has been done? How many freed- 
men were there at the close of the war ? How^ many 
now? What has been done among them? Why is 
any work necessary in the cities? What has been 
done among the Mongolians? Is the work encourag- 
ing or otherwise? What bearing has the future of 
America on the world ? 



110 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 



CHAPTER XV. 



INDIA AND THE GOSPKI.. 

I. Sir William Hunter says India is a con- 
tinent and not a country. Excluding Burma 
and Ceylon, India has an area of 1,587,000 
square miles. It is as large as that part of the 
United States east of the Rocky Mountains. 
According to the same authority India is a 
museum of races differing in language and re- 
ligion. The people are divided into two main 
classes: The Aryans, and the Non- Aryans. 
The Aryans belong to the same stock as the 
Greeks, Romans, Germans and English The 
Non Aryans are the aborigines. They are the 
Tamils, the Telugus, the Kanarese, and Mala- 
3^alam. There are three hundred distinct lan- 
guages and dialects. These dialects differ as 
widely as Italian and French, and as French 
and English. In religion the people are Hin- 
dus, Mohammedans, Jews, Sikhs, Parsees, and 
Christians. The most popular gods are those 
that deliver their worshipers from demons. The 
Mohammedans entered India and conquered 
much of it in the eleventh century. Their 
sway continued till the Sepoy mutiny in 1857. 
There are 50,000,000 Mohammedans in the 
country. 



INDIA AND THE GOSPEL. Ill 

2. Christianity entered India at a very 
early day. In the second century the converts 
requested the bishop of Alexandria to send 
them a Christian teacher. Pantsenus was se- 
lected and sent. The next missionaries came 
from Syria by way of Persia. The Roman 
Catholics came with the Portuguese, Their 
work has been carried on ever since.* They 
have a cathedral in almost every city. They 
have 619 European missionaries and 668 native 
priests and 1,594,901 converts. The Danes 
began work very near the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, and the English Baptists 
near the close. Each factory had its chaplain 
and schoolmaster and provided a decent place 
of worship. The Sunday service was followed 
by gambling, shooting, drinking, and racing. 
Some of the leading officials lived in open sin. 
Drunkenness was considered an essential part 
of Christianity. Henry Martyn did not drink, 
and the people said he had turned Mussulman. 
The London Missionary Society entered India 
in 1805; the Church Missionary Society, in 
1807; the American Board, in 1812; the Eng- 
lish Wesleyans, in 18 13; the Scottish Presbyte- 
rians, in 1830; the American Presbyterians, in 
1834; the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 
1856; the Disciples of Christ, in 1882. 



112 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

3. At the present time there are sixty 
Societies laboring for the redemption of India. 
The foreign ordained missionaries number 868; 
the native ordained ministers, 797; the foreign 
lay workers, 118; the native helpers, 3,491; 
the foreign women, 711; the native women, 
3,278. According to the latest census the 
Protestant Christians in British India number 
648,843. The gospel is preached in churches, 
in the bazars, in the homes, and wherever the 
people will listen. Not only is the gospel 
preached, but the sick are healed. The foreign 
doctors number 168; the native doctors, 168; 
the mission hospitals and dispensaries, 166. 
Schools and colleges have been opened to train 
workers. There are 7,302 girls in boarding 
schools, 62,144 in day schools, and 135,565 in 
Sunday schools. In addition to all these 32,- 
659 women are taught by the missionaries in 
their homes. The Bible has been translated 
into most of the languages. This is the most 
effective of all missionary agencies. 

3. In some missions the success has been 
very great. The Gossner mission has recently 
celebrated its jubilee. This mission is among 
the Kols. The religion of the Kols consists in 
worshiping evil spirits They think the 
gods are pleased by feasting, drinking and 



INDIA AND THE GOSPEL. 113 

dancing. The whole number of converts from 
the first is 52,246. Some have died, and some 
have gone to Assam, but 40,000 are alive and 
known. The Arcot mission was begun by 
Dr. John Scudder in 181 9. He served the 
people as preacher, teacher, physician, trans- 
lator and editor. His children and children's 
children to the fourth generation have walked 
in his steps. There are now 124 congregations, 
a Christian community of 6,504 souls, 122 
schools with 4,577 pupils enrolled. The Amer- 
ican Methodists report 25,000 conversions in 
one year, and over a thousand conversions a 
month since that time. Bishop Thoburn states 
that the Methodists in India number 55,000. 
Dr. Parker thinks that 90,000 at least have 
broken away from idolatry because of the 
preaching and teaching of this mission. 

4. The Madura mission was founded in 
1836. The present staff consists of thirteen 
missionaries, sixteen assistant missionaries, and 
543 native agents. Schools have been opened 
for boys and girls ; teachers and preachers are 
trained for service ; hospitals and dispensa- 
ries have been provided for the sick. The ad- 
herents number 14,810; the youths in school, 
6,873. '^^^ w^ork in Tinnevelly began more 
than a century ago. The Christian commun- 



114 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 



ity connected with the mission numbers 55,571 ; 
the young people under instruction, 19,564. 
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
reports 42,170 adherents in the same field and 
15,764 scholars. The whole number of con- 
verts in this district amounts to nearly 100,000 
souls. The London Society has labored in 
Travancore, the stronghold of Brahmanism in 
Southern India. This mission has 41,000 con- 
verts, and 17,240 pupils in its schools. The 
American Baptists have done a great work 
among the Telugus. For years the success 
was so small that it was proposed to abandon 
the field. In the famine of 1876, the mission- 
aries did what they could to save the people. 
One of the number was an engineer. He 
superintended the cutting of one section of 
the Buckingham canal. When the famine 
was over the people came to inquire about 
the gospel. In six months 9,606 were bap- 
tized. There were 2,222 baptisms in one day. 
There are now 56,683 native Christians con- 
nected with that mission. The societies that 
have had these large ingatherings have been 
at work for a long time. They reaped bounti- 
fully, but in order to do this, they sowed 
bountifully. 

5. Burma has been annexed to India, and 



INDIA AND THE GOSPEL. , 115 

is now a British possession ; the population 
numbers about 8,000,000. Judson reached 
Burma in 1813. After seven years he bap- 
tized his first convert. The American Baptist 
Society has 23 stations, 139 missionaries, 610 
native preachers, 550 churches, and 30,253 
communicants. The Karen Christians number 
20,000. In Assam there are 7 stations, 33 mis- 
sionaries, and 2,400 church members. Other 
societies are in Burma and are sharing in the 
work. 

6. The British government has done much 
to aid the work in India. Its attitude is 
avowedly neutral. It does nothing directly in 
the interest of Christianity. Some of the offi- 
cials are hostile and would gladly see every 
missionary leave the country. But whether 
they are friendly or hostile, they are helping 
the evangelisation of India. The English 
have built 18,000 miles of railway, and strung 
37,000 miles of telegraph wire, and organized 
a vast and complete postal system, and founded 
1 30,000 educational institutions, and covered 
the land with courts of justice and hospitals 
and dispensaries. These are all evangelizing 
agencies. God is making every English offi- 
cer to accomplish His purpose in India. 



116 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 



QUESTIONS. 

How large is India ? How are the people divided 
as to race ? Have all the same language ? What are 
the principal religions? When did the gospel first 
enter India ? When did the Catholics come ? What 
success have they won ? When did Protestant soci- 
eties enter ? How many workers and converts are 
there now ? How many medical men and hospitals ? 
How many schools and scholars? What success re- 
warded the Gossner mission? The Arcot? The 
work of the Methodists ? In Madura ? In Tinnevel- 
ly ? In Travancore ? Among the Telugu ? Who car- 
led the gospel to Burma? What has been accom- 
plished there ? Has the British government helped 
or hindered the work ? How ? 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CHINA AND THE GOSPEL. 

I. China, including Manchuria and her 
colonial possessions, has an area of nearly 5,000,- 
000 square miles Her coast line is 4,400 miles 
long. In size, in position, and in her water- 
courses, China is not unlike the United States. 
Her mineral resources are varied and abundant. 
China has an estimated population of over 
400,000,000. These vary somewhat in language 
and in religion, but they have many traits in 



CHINA AND THE GOSPEL. 117 

common. They are alike in their intense con- 
servatism and hatred of all innovations, in their 
pride of race, and in their contempt for all out- 
side peoples, and in their self-righteousness. 
Barbarians may and do sin; the Chinese do not. 

2. China is the oldest nation in exist- 
ence. Her records go back as far as the call 
of Abram. The nations of Europe are of 
yesterday when compared with her. She saw 
the rise and fall of Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, 
Israel, Greece and Rome. She had poets before 
Homer and David. *' When the Britons wore 
skins, the Chinese wore silks." Dr. Williams 
says that a thousand years ago China was the 
most refined nation on the globe. Other nations 
have made progress; she has gone backward. 
His explanation is this: China did not have 
the Bible, She has ethics, but her ethical 
systems are not rooted in religion. Her learned 
men are either pantheists or atheists. The 
Chinese are not an inferior people. Sir Fred- 
erick Bruce maintained that Chinese statesmen 
were equal to any he ever met in any capital in 
Europe. Dr. Williamson spoke of the Chinese 
as the imperial race in the far east. 

3. China contains one- fourth of all the 
people in the world. According to Nevius 
1,700 of her cities are walled, and several of 



118 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

these cities have each a population of one 
million. The Chinese have all the elements of 
a great race. They are peaceable, sober, 
industrious, economical, intellectual. Their 
system of competitive examinations has 
brought the ablest men to the front in the 
civil service Their ingrained respect for 
parents and elders has secured the promised 
length of days. At the same time the people 
have been held down and kept back by false 
faiths and by a corrupt government. The roads 
and bridges are so bad that they cannot be worse. 
The cities are filthy and unwholesome. There 
is an air of decay about the temples and about 
all the public buildings. There are few signs 
of enterprise or progress. China moves, but 
her movement is like that of a glacier. 

4. China has 300,000 temples, 4,000,000 
idols, and spends $400,000,000 a year on idol- 
atry. There are three religious systems, name- 
ly, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. 
Confucius emphasized the five relations: That 
of emperor and officer; that of father and son, 
that of husband and wife, that of elder brother 
and 3^ounger, and that of friends. He had 
nothing to say of man's relation to God. Tao- 
ism is a superstitious system. It seeks the 
elixir of life ^nd the philosopher's stone. The 



CHINA AND THE GOSPEL. 119 

heart is to be cultivated by retirement, aus- 
terity, and meditation. Buddhism came from 
India in the first century of our era. It pro- 
poses to give peace by eradicating desire. A 
woman can enter heaven onl}^ by becoming a 
man. Chinese belong to all three religions at 
the same time, and do not think they are 
inconsistent. 

5. Christianit}^ entered China, so it is be- 
lieved, early in the sixth century. The reign- 
ing emperor investigated the new faith and 
said: " Let it have free course throughout the 
Empire." After his death earnest efforts were 
made to suppress it. John of Mount Corvin 
reached Peking in 1293. Kublai Khankindl}^ 
received him. These were turbulent times and 
Christianity made little progress. After the 
fall of the Mogul Empire, China was cut off 
from the west for about two hundred 3'ears. 
Xavier attempted to enter, but died on the 
coast. Matteo Ricci arrived in Canton in 1 5 8 1 . 
Soon after he made his way to the capital. He 
and his associates made a surve}^ of the Empire, 
corrected the calendar, and cast cannon for the 
emperor. The missionaries, on account of 
quarrels among themselves and the consequen- 
ces of these quarrels, were ordered to leave the 
countrv. Roman Catholicism was under the 



120 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

ban till 1842. The latest reports give the fol- 
lowing statistics: Bishops, 41; European 
priests, 664; native priests, 559; colleges, 34; 
convents, 34; native converts, 1,002,818. 
Their cathedrals are the finest buildings in 
China. The church is immensely wealth3\ 
6. Robert Morrison was the first Protestant 
missionary to enter China. He reached Canton 
in 1807. Public preaching was prohibited by 
law. He undertook to translate the Scrip- 
tures and to prepare a Chinese English diction- 
ary. He died in 1834. The prospect was 
nearly as dark then as when he landed. The 
Nankin Treaty provided that five cities should 
be opened. These cities are : Canton, Amoy, 
Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai. That was in 
1842. The Tientsin Treaty was signed eigh- 
teen years later. It provided for the opening 
of other cities in the North. The whole Em- 
pire is now open. There are missionaries in 
all the provinces, except one. The treaties say 
that no one who quietly professes and teaches 
the doctrines of Christianity shall be har- 
assed or persecuted on account of his faith. 
There are now over 600 ordained workers in 
China. There are in all about 1,700 mission- 
aries. The converts number 85, 000. In 1845 
there were only six Chinese Christians in the 



CHINA AND THE GOSPEL. 121 

Empire. In the last thirty-five years the con- 
verts have multiplied two thousand fold. If 
they continue to increase at this rate for the 
next thirty-five years, they will number 26,- 
000,000. 

7. Schools, colleges and universities have 
been founded. These enroll 20,000 pupils. 
There are institutions in w^hich the blind 
and deaf are taught. The missionaries have 
established sixty-one hospitals and forty- four 
dispensaries. The patients number 358,000 
a year. This work conquers prejudice and 
opens hearts and homes to the gospel. Leper 
asylums have been opened. The missionaries 
protest against opium and foot-binding. In 
times of flood and famine and pestilence the 
missionaries are foremost in ministering relief. 
The first printing establishment dates as far 
back as 1833. One Mission Press in Shanghai 
issues 40,000,000 pages annually. The writings 
of Dr.Griffith John, Dr. Allen, Timothy Richard, 
and E. T. Williams, are read in all parts of the 
Empire. China was once regarded as the Gib- 
raltar of paganism . Some one said its language 
w^as invented by the devil to keep out Chris- 
tianity. The oldest and ablest workers are 
confident of victor3^ All the missionaries 
share in this feeling. 



122 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

QUESTIONS. 

What is the area of China ? The population ? In 
what respects are China and the United States alike ? 
How old is China? Are the Chinese an inferior peo- 
ple? What elements of strength have they ? What 
is the present condition of the country? Why no 
progress ? What religions are found in China ? What 
is the central thought in each ? When did Christi- 
anity enter China? What was its fate? When did 
John of Corvin and Matteo Ricci arrive ? Why were 
the Catholics expelled? When did they resume 
operations? Their present strength? When did 
Morrison reach Canton? What did he do? When 
and what five cities were open to the gospel ? When 
were other cities opened ? How many workers are 
now in the Empire? Converts? Schools? Pupils? 
Hospitals? Patients? What is the Press doing? 
What is the outlook? 



CHAPTER XVII. 

JAPAN AND KOREA AND THE GOSPEI.. 

I . Japan consists of four large and three 
thousand small islands, and is about the size 
of California. At the close of the war with 
China, Formosa became a Japanese possession. 
Japan has a population of 41,000,000. The 
people are intelligent, progressive, imitative, 
courteous and cleanly. They are not willing 



JAPAN AND KOREA AND THE GOSPEL. 123 

to be behind any other nation on the globe. 
The government is said to be the oldest in ex- 
istence: the present reigning family has occu- 
pied the throne for twenty-four hundred years. 

2. Wi'h the coronation of the prCvSent 
emperor a new era began. It is called the 
era of enlightened peace. Japan ceased to be 
one of the "hermit nations," and entered 
into treaty relations with all the great powers 
of the world. Her public schools are after the 
American model. In the-^e schools there are 
3,000,000 children. The government is re- 
solved that there shall not be a village with 
an ignorant family, nor a famil}^ with an igno- 
rant member. The Imperial University ranks 
with the great schools in America and Europe. 
Twenty-five years ago there was no news- 
paper published in Japan, now there are 700 
periodicals. Tokio alone has seventeen dailies. 
Japan has a parliament, a written constitu- 
tion, a responsible cabinet, an army and a navy, 

3. Xavier entered Japan in 1549. Roman 
Catholic Christianity took root and spread 
in parts of the empire. The govern- 
ment became suspicious of the missionaries, 
and drove them out. The converts were re- 
quired to deny the faith, or be put to death. 
Thirty thousand refused to obey the edict and 



124 HAND BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

were beheaded. Their bodies were buried in 
a common grave, and over that grave there 
was this inscription: '' While the sun warms 
the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to en- 
ter Japan." As late as 1868 there were edicts 
along the highways to this effect : '' The evil 
sect called Christians is strictly prohibited. 
Suspected persons should be reported to the 
proper oflBcers, and rewards will be given." 
Japan was the land of the gods, and was not to 
be defiled with the feet of foreigners. 

4. As Japan lies between China and 
America, she could not continue isolated. She 
was obliged to open her gates. In 1853 Com- 
modore Perry entered the Bay of Yeddo. He 
came in the name of the United States and in 
the name of the Lord of hosts. He spread 
the American flag on the capstan, opened the 
Bible, and read and sang the one hundredth 
Psalm. He bore a letter from the president 
to the emperor. After delivering it he steamed 
away. The next year he returned for an answer. 
This action led to the opening of Japan to 
commerce and to the gospel. 

5. Shintoism is the one faith indigenous 
to Japan. It is in essence a worship of ances- 
tors and dead heroes. Confucianism was bor- 
rowed from China, and Buddhism from India. 



JAPAN AND KOREA AND THE GOSPEL. 125 

The Japanese find no difficulty in accepting 
these three faiths at the same time. They are 
taught that they need no code of ethics. The 
Japanese have only to follow the promptings 
of their own hearts. Ethical codes are for tbe 
Chinese and other outside barbarians 

6. The first Protestant missionaries reached 
Japan in 1859. They labored twelve years for 
ten converts. The first church was organized 
in 1872. It consisted of eleven members. 
There are now twenty-seven societies at work 
in this field. The missionaries number 625 ; 
the churches, 364; the converts, 39,240; Sun- 
day-school scholars, 29,957; native ministers, 
258; unordained preachers and helpers, 536. 
The annual contributions amount to about 
$35,000. The Greek Church reports 22,000 
members; the Roman Catholics claim 49,280 
adherents. The Bible has been translated and 
widely read. In one year 57,894 copies or por- 
tions of copies were circulated. In the war 
with China the government gave the Bible socie- 
ties permission to distribute Gospels among the 
sailors and soldiers. This was an unprece- 
dented recognition of the Christian religion. 

7. Korea lies between China and Japan. 
It is about as large as Italy, and has a popu- 
lation of 18,000,000. About a century ago 



126 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

Catholic missionaries began work in this coun- 
try. They report 50,000 adherents. In 1873 
John Ross of Manchuria spent some time in 
Korea and won a few to the faith. There are 
six missionary societies represented in Korea. 
Work is carried on in several large centers. 
There is an edict against the profession of 
Christianity, but it is a dead letter. The latest 
reports are most encouraging. A recent trav- 
eler saw some sorcerers surrender their instru- 
ments, and heard devil- worshipers confess 
Jesus Christ as Lord. Korea is one of the 
most hopeful of all the mission fields. 



QUESTIONS. 

How large is Japan ? What is the population ? 
What are some of the characteristics of the people ? 
When did Japan cease to be a hermit nation? What 
is the attitude of the goverment toward education ? 
How many papers are published in Japan? When 
did Catholicism enter? How many suffered martyr- 
dom? How did the edicts describe Christians? How 
was Japan opened ? What religions are prevalent in 
Japan? What is Shintoism ? When did Protestants 
enter this empire ? How many workers are there 
now ? Converts ? Native helpers ? How many 
Greeks? Catholics? Where is Korea ? What is the 
population ? How many societies are at work there ? 
What is the prospect of success? 



AFRICA AND THE GOSPEL. 127 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

AFRICA AND THE GOSPKl.. 

1. Africa is the second great division of 
the globe in point of size, but by far the least 
important as regards civilization and progress. 
The valley of the Nile was known in the earli- 
est period of history as a nursery of commerce, 
art and sciences. But while Egypt was flourish- 
ing the rest of the continent was almost wholly 
unknown. " Darkness covered the land, and 
gross darkness the peoples." This continent 
so long shrouded in mystery has, in modern 
times, been partly opened by explorers and 
missionaries, and commercial and military 
agents. 

2 . Africa has an area of 1 1 , 500,000 square 
miles. It will help us to grasp these figures 
if we think that this continent is three 
times as large as the United States, including 
Alaska, or larger than all Europe and North 
America combined. Its chief rivers are: The 
Nile, the Niger, the Zambesi, the Orange, the 
Congo, the Senegal, and the Gambia. In the 
interior great lakes have been discovered where 
once the country was thought to be desert. 

3. The population is estimated at about 



128 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

190,000,000. These represent several races, 
and languages, and religions. There are six 
racial groups, and the differences are many 
and great. Dr. Cust says that the languages 
of Africa number 438. Most of the people are 
fetish- worshipers They take a piece of wood 
or soap and make it the subject of brutish and 
superstitious worship. Human sacrifices are 
frequently offered. One fourth of the people 
are Mohammedans. Every Moslem, no mat- 
ter what his calling, is a propagandist. The 
slave-stealer is as zealous for the faith of the 
prophet of Arabia as if he lived in a mosque. 
Three millions are nominally Christians; one- 
half of these are Copts and Abyssinians . There 
are a million Jews and 250,000 Hindus. 

4. The Portuguese explored parts of Af- 
rica in the fifteenth century; the Dutch gained 
a foothold in the southern part in the seven- 
teenth. Livingstone spent twenty-four years 
exploring the interior Among the other dis- 
tinguished men who preceded and succeeded 
Livingstone in this field were: Mungo Park, 
Krapf, Robinson, Burton, Speke, Grant, 
Baker, Schweinfurth, Cameron, Stanley, and 
Thomson. As the nature and value of this 
continent became known, the nations of Europe 
established protectorates over large portions. 



AFRICA AND THE GOSPEL. 129 

Thus, France claims 3,000,000 square miles; 
England, 2,810,000; Germany, 823,000; Portu- 
gal, 842,000; Italy, 600,000; Spain, 243,877. 
The Congo Free State has an area of 900,000 
square miles, and is under the control of Bel- 
gium. There are only 2,000,000 square miles 
left for the natives. It is not known how soon 
this fragment^ will be partitioned among the 
great powers. Once the complaint was that the 
people were being taken from Africa; now 
Africa is being taken from the people. 

5. The Moravians entered Africa with the 
gospel in 1736. The climate was deadly and 
they were obliged to retire. The next year 
they entered at another point, but the Dutch 
colonists disliked them and drove them out. In 
1792 they returned and established themselves 
in the land. Later on other societies began 
work. Thus the London Society sent out men 
in 1798; the Church Missionary Society, in 
1804; the Wesley ans, 181 1; the American 
Baptists in 182 1. There are now forty-two 
Protestant societies represented. There are 
1,168 missionaries; 1,000 stations, and about 
1,000,000 adherents. There are about as 
many Catholic converts. The whole Bible has 
been translated into thirteen languages; the 
New Testament into ten others, and portions 



130 HAND BOOK ON MISSIOxSLS. 

into forty-three others still; making sixty-six 
in all. 

6. This work has not been carried on 
without great sacrifices. Africa has been 
called ^' the white man's grave.'' Of the 
eighty-five missionaries sent to Sierra Leone 
in twenty years, fifty four died and fourteen 
returned with broken health. Out of eighty-one 
sent out by another society in £he same num- 
ber of years, forty two died, whilst several 
were obliged on account of sickness to leave 
the field. '^A chain of graves stretches over 
this land, all brightened with the glow of con- 
secrated lives and martyr deaths, telling at 
what cost the church of Christ has gone forth 
to the redemption of Africa." This land has 
been consecrated for ever by the lives of Mof- 
fat, Livingstone, Johnson, Crowther, Steere, 
Mackay, Arnot, Hannington, Greenfell, Cross, 
the Combers, Coillard, Hore, and many others. 

7. The gospel has won and is winning 
signal victories in Africa. Kingsley spoke of 
the natives as poor brutes in human shape. 
The Portuguese regarded the Hottentots as a 
race of apes, and wrote over their church 
doors: *' Dogs and Hottentots not admitted." 
Dr. Pritchard says: *' It is indeed surprising, 
after all that we have heard of the sloth and 



AFRICA AND THE GOSPEL. 131 

brutal sensuality of the Hottentots, to learn 
that no other uncivilized race has given a 
more willing ear to the preaching of Christi- 
anity, and that none has been more strikingly 
and splendidly impressed by its reception." Af- 
ricaner was an outlaw; he was an incarnate 
fiend. He became a Christian, a helper in the 
mission, a winner of souls. Stanley tells of the 
Christians of Uganda. They endured the most 
deadly persecutions — the stake and the fire, the 
cord and the club, the sharp knife and the rifle 
bullet. 

8. Something has been done; but the 
great field has hardly been touched. Mission- 
aries have pressed in from the Cape and along 
all the large streams; but there remains yet 
very much land to be occupied. Some one has 
said this: '' One- eighth of the pagan popula- 
tion of the world is in Africa. From Sene- 
gambia, 4,500 miles across to Abyssinia, there 
are ninety million people, and one hundred 
languages into which the Word of God has 
never been translated. It lies unentered, al- 
most untouched. The Koran is carried thither 
by the Arab. Is the gospel carried by Chris- 
tians? No. Traders have reached the heart 
of the country. Gin and gunpowder are find- 



132 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

ing their way in thither, but the messengers of 
Jesus — the water of life, not yet. ' * 



QUESTIONS. 

How does Africa compare with the other conti- 
nents in extent and importance ? How many square 
miles are there in Africa ? What are some of the 
rivers ? The population ? How many races ? How 
many languages ? What is the religious condition of 
Africa ? By whom has Africa been explored ? How 
have the nations of Europe divided the territory 
among themselves ? Who brought the gospel to South 
Africa first? What other religious bodies followed ? 
How many missionaries are there now in the field ? 
Adherents ? Catholics ? What about the climate ? 
Have missionaries suffered severely ? Has the work 
prospered ? Have people been saved ? Is the present 
force sufficient ? Is the ground fully occupied ? 



CHAPTER XIX. 

TURKEY AND PERSIA AND THE GOSPEI.. 

I. The Turkish empire has a population 
of 33)559, 787> and an area of 1,652,533 square 
miles. Palestine > Arabia, Syria and all Asia 
Minor are under Turkish control. The Sultan 
is the spiritual head of 190,000,000 souls. 
Most of the Turkish subjects are Mohamme- 



TURKEY AND PERSIA AND THE GOSPEL. 133 

dans. Their creed is, * 'There is no God but 
God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God.'* 
The}'' are noted for their violence, sensuality, 
debasement of women, and devotion to the 
Koran. There are fourteen Christian sects in 
the empire. Among these are the following : 
Syrians, Greeks, Armenians, Copts and 
Roman Catholics. These peoples have cor- 
rupted forms of Christianity. They have a 
name to live, but they are dead. When the 
Mohammedans saw the worship of the first 
missionaries they said: ''These are Moslems." 
They saw no cross or picture or any material 
object of worship. These sects represent the 
subject races, and live on sufferance. 

2. The Turkish empire is bankrupt. 
Everywhere there are signs of decay. At one 
time Mohammedanism was a victorious faith ; 
it seemed destined to take the world. Charles 
Martel broke its power in the west. In 1683, 
its advance in the east was arrested under the 
walls of Vienna. Since that time Turkey has 
lost Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, Bessa- 
rabia, Servia, Greece, Moldavia, Wallachia, 
Bosnia, Bulgaria, Roumelia, Thessaly, Algeria, 
Tunis, Cyprus, Massoah, and Egypt, The 
day of the Turk's departure from Europe 
cannot be long delayed. The recent massacres 



134 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

are the effects of this conviction in the mind 
of the Sultan. He is violent because he sees 
that his time is short. He sees among Chris- 
tians energy, intelligence, hopefulness, while 
among the Moslem people there are no signs 
of progress, and he is alarmed. 

3 . The American Board sent its first agents 
to Turkey in 1820. There are now twenty-six 
central stations, over three hundred out-sta- 
tions, 176 American missionaries, and property 
worth ^650,000. The work has five depart- 
ments: Evangelistic, educational, medical, 
publication, and relief. In famine, pestilence, 
or persecution, the last is the most important. 
There are fifty-four colleges and high schools 
and four theological seminaries and seven hun- 
dred village schools. The whole number un- 
der instruction is 20,496; the whole number of 
native teachers, 564. Medical work is carried 
on in Aintab, Csesarea, Mardin and Van. The 
present number of churches is 125; members, 
12,787; native ordained preachers, 100; unor- 
dained, 128; places for stated preaching, 327; 
average congregations, 34,373. 

4. The Foreign Christian Missionary So- 
ciety began work in Turkey in 1879. The 
gospel was preached publicly and from house 
to house. Schools were opened and children 



TURKEY AND PERSIA AND THE GOSPEL. 135 

taught. Tracts were published and scattered 
far and near. The workers made long tours 
through the empire and gathered the believers 
into churches Constantinople and Marsov^an 
are the two principal centers. The whole 
number of converts from the first is about one 
thousand. 

5. The Presbyterians of the North are at 
work in Syria. There are sixteen men and 
twenty-three women on the staff. There are 
five central stations: Beirut; Tripoli, with 
twenty-seven out-stations, reaching to Aleppo; 
Abeih in Mt. I^ebanon, with twenty-eight 
out- stations; Zaleh in Ccele-Syria, with nine- 
teen out-stations; Sidon, with twenty-four, 
and reaching nearly to Galilee. The gospel 
is preachel at ninety-one places In 127 
primary schools there are 6,384 pupils, while 
hundreds are being trained in the high schools, 
academies, and seminaries. The Syrian 
Protestant College has 292 students in the 
preparatory, collegiate, and medical depart- 
ments. The Theological Seminary has a strong 
staff of teachers. The large hospital belonging 
to the Knights of St John is under the control 
of the Medical Missionaries. The Mission 
Press prints 25,000,000 pages annually. In 
sixty years 1,650,000 copies of the Bible have 



136 HAND BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

been circulated. The Kaiserswerth Deaconesses 
have an orphanage. The Society for the Sup- 
port of British Syrian Schools has seven schools 
and a training institution. The Irish Presby- 
terians carry on work in Damascus; and the 
United Presbyterians, in Latakia. 

6. There are several societies represented 
in Palestine. There is one missionary for every 
one thousand Jews. The Church Missionary 
Society has an evangelist, a medical missionary, 
and a teacher in every important town in Pales- 
tine. This society has gone down into Philistia, 
over into Moab, and up as far as Syria. 

7 . The work in Turkey is conducted in the 
face of many difficulties and discouragements. 
Nothing can be done among the Moslems. The 
Government will permit the publication of no 
book or paper attacking Mohammedanism. No 
new school can be opened without the consent 
of the Sultan. That is, it can not be opened 
at all. No permit to erect a school or church 
can be obtained Old laws are strictly enforced, 
and new laws more severe than the old are 
enacted. Officials are supicious and scent 
mischief where none exists. There is an 
imperial rescript in which religious liberty is 
accorded the Moslems, but this is a dead letter. 
If a Moslem should become a Christian he 



TURKEY AND PERSIA AND THE GOSPEL. 137 

would be drafted into the army and sent to 
some remote province. That would be the 
last his family would ever hear of him. 

8. Of the 9,000,000 souls in Persia, 8,000,- 
000 are Mohammedans. The Armenians num- 
ber 43,000; the Nestorians, 23,000. Henry 
Martyn spent a year in Persia completing his 
translation of the New Testament. That was 
in 181 1. Other missionaries followed. The 
main work is under the care of the Presby- 
terian Board. There are now thirty-seven 
churches; 2,443 communicants; 361 na'ive 
Christians engaged in the work, and 3,341 
children are under instruction. Dr. Labaree 
has revised the Syrian Bible, and the American 
Bible Society has published it. There are the 
same difficulties in the way of the work in 
Persia that are found in Moslem lands; but 
the Lord reigns and his purposes can not be 
defeated. 



QUESTIONS. 

What is the population of Turkey ? What is the 
leading faith? What other faiths are represented ? 
What is the area of Turkey ? What lands has the 
Empire lost? What is the present condition of 
Turkey ? When did the American Board begin work ? 
What has been done ? When did the Foreign Christian 
Missionary Society begin work ? What are its principal 



138 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

centers? How many converts are reported? What 
Board is at work in Syria ? What has been accom- 
plished? What society has done most in Palestine? 
is the work in Turkey difficult ? What are some of 
the difficulties? What has been done in Persia? 



CHAPTER XX. 

SOUTH AME;rICA and MEXICO AND THE 
GOSPKL. 

I . South America was discovered by Pedro 
Cabral, A. D. 1500. This continent is nearly 
tmcQ as large as Europe; it contains one-eighth 
of the land surface of the globe. It has three 
mighty rivers: The Amazon, the La Plata, and 
the Orinoco. South America is divided into 
fourteen countries. These countries have an 
estimated populatipn of 37,000,000 The Fue- 
gians of Cape Horn are the lowest in the scale; 
the Europeans and North Americans are the 
highest. There are 5,000,000 aborigines, half- 
castes, Chinese coolies, and foreigners from al- 
most every country under heaven. North 
America was settled very largely by Protes- 
tants; South America was settled very largely 
by Roman Catholics The civilization of North 
America is ''Puritan, prosperous, powerful, 



SOUTH AlVIERICA AND THE GOSPEL. 139 

progressive; ' ' the civilization of South America 
is Catholic and stationary. 

2. South America has been called the Neg- 
lected Continent, There are 265 missionary so- 
cieties in existence; of these only sixteen labor 
in this vast field. The Moravians entered 
Dead Man's La7id in Dutch Guiana. They 
knew there was no worse climate anywhere. 
They died before they could preach. Others 
took their place and perished. ' In the first 
fifty years there were more deaths than con- 
verts. Every soul saved cost a missionary's 
life. " They toiled and suffered and in due sea- 
son they reaped a great harvest. Two-thirds 
of the whole population of Paramaribo are 
believers. Allen Gardiner and several com- 
panions went to Tierra del Fuego. They were 
plundered by the savage natives and forced to 
seek shelter in dark caverns; these caverns 
were invaded by the stormy tides; their pro- 
visions gave out, and all hope of supplies from 
England failed; they died of starvation. In 
these dark days Gardiner wrote: ''I tasted 
nothing yesterday. Blessed be my Heavenly 
Father for the many mercies which I enjoy — 
no pain, nor even cravings of hunger, though 
scarcely able to turn on my bed." Two days 
later he wrote: " Great and marvelous are the 



140 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

loving kindnesses of my gracious God unto me. 
He has preserved me hitherto, although with- 
out bodily food for three days, yet without any 
feeling of hunger or thirst/' In view of death 
he said: ''Should we languish and die here, I 
beseech thee, O Lord, to raise up others and 
send forth laborers into thine harvest." ''I trust 
poor Fuegia will not be abandoned. If I have 
a wish for the good of my fellowmen, it is that 
the Tierra del Fuego Mission might be prose- 
cuted with vigor." This mission was vigor- 
ously prosecuted, and these degraded people 
were uplifted and ennobled. Darwin did not 
think it was possible to make the Fuegians 
honest. When he learned of the triumphs of 
the gospel among them, he wrote : '' The suc- 
cess of the Tierra del Fuego Mission is most 
wonderful, and charms me, as I had always 
prophesied utter failure." 

3. There are now sixteen societies repre- 
sented in this continent. The whole number 
of workers, including unordained men, single 
women, and missionaries' wives, is less than 
400. The communicants do not exceed 15,000. 
Of the whole population not more than 4,000,- 
000 have heard the message of salvation. 
Venezuela has a population of 2,200,000, and 
has only one Protestant missionary; Colombia 



SOUTH AMERICA AND THE GOSPEL. 141 

has a population of 4,000,000, and eleven mis- 
sionaries; Ecuador has a population of 1,000,- 
000, and has no missionary ; Peru has a popu- 
lation of 3,000,000, and two missionaries ; 
Bolivia has a population of 1,450,000, and has 
no resident missionary ; Chili has a population 
of 3,300,000, and has sixty- one missionaries; 
the Argentine Republic has a population of 
4,000,000, and only a handful of workers; 
Paraguay has a population of 400,000, and has 
five workers ; Uruguay has a population of 
7)750,000, and has two stations ; Brazil has a 
population of 16,000,000, and has eighty-one 
missionaries. More than half a century ago 
Allen Gardiner wrote; ''While efforts to spread 
Christianity in other parts of the world are 
carried on with vigor, all animation dies when 
South America is but hinted at. Collective 
voices seem to say with a soft murmur, ' It is 
the natural inheritance of Pope and pagan — 
let it alone.' " These words are still true. 

4. Mexico, our neighbor on the south, has 
a population of nearly 12,000 000. Thirty- 
eight per cent, are Indians, few of whom can 
be called civilized. As in South America, and 
in the little Republic of Central America, 
Roman Catholicism is the dominant faith. The 
government is tolerant and the people are free 



142 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

to accept Protestantism. It is now about a 
quarter of a century since missionary work 
began in this land. The latest statistics are as 
follows : Missionaries, 177; native workers, 
512 ; organized churches, 385; communicants 
16,250; children in the mission schools, 5,000; 
in Sunday Schools, 10,000. Mexico has made 
great progress in recent years. Being so close 
to the United States they cannot go back or 
stand still. 



QUESTIONS. 

When and by whom was South America dis- 
covered ? What are the great rivers of this continent ? 
What is the population ? What is its character ? What 
is the dominant faith? Why is South America caUed 
the Neglected Continent! What did the Moravians 
suffer and accomplish ? What was the fate of Allen 
Gardiner? What was Darwin's testimony? How 
many workers are there in this continent? How 
are they distributed among the different countries ? 
What is the population of Mexico ? What has been 
done in this field? How many missionaries, churches, 
converts, are there ? 



THE ISLANDS AND THE GOSPEL, 143 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THK ISI.ANDS AND THK GOSPEI.. 

1 . Some of the early missionaries of the 
modern period went to the islands with the 
gospel. A century ago the largest fields were 
closed against missionary enterprise. This was 
the case as respects China, Japan, India and 
Africa. The islands were open, and the peo- 
ple were willing to hear the message of salva- 
tion. Some of the most signal victories of the 
gospel were won in the islands. 

2. The first missionaries to the Sandwich 
Islands began their work in 1819. Captain 
Cook discovered these islands. The people 
were drunkards, thieves and profligates. The 
family relation was unknown. Two-thirds of 
the children were strangled or buried alive in 
infancy. The sick were removed to a distance 
and left to perish The aged and infirm were 
thrown over precipices. Human sacrifices 
were frequently offered. It was not long till 
some converts were made. In course of time 
the whole population was brought under Chris- 
tian influences. The record of Titus Coan's 
w^ork reads like a chapter in the book of Acts. 
The people left their homes and built huts near 
his residence, that they might learn the way of 



144 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS, j 

life. There were meetings daily. The con- 
gregations ranged from 3,000 to 6,000. The 
people confessed and forsook their sins. They 
were changed in heart, in thought, and in 
character. Fifty years after the work began on 
that group, it closed. Then the believers formed 
a society to carry the gospel to Micronesia. 

3. The New Hebrides were evangelized 
by Geddie, Gordon, Calvert and Paton. Ged- 
die did most of his work on one island. On 
his grave there is an inscription which runs 
thus : '^ When he came among us, there were 
no Christians ; when he left us, there were no 
heathen.'' Gordon was killed. Paton was 
opposed and threatened. The people tried to 
drive him away ; he would not go. He lived 
to see 14,000 converts. He is still alive, and 
may see as many more before he goes to his 
long home. 

4. Fiji was the darkest place on earth. 
The people were without a written language 
and without morals As many as a hundred 
human bodies were cooked at one time. Pris- 
oners were fattened like swine for the slaughter. 
Whole villages were depopulated to supply 
their neighbor^ with fresh meat. Now canni- 
balism is unknown. Out of a population of 
120,000, there are 102,000 who regularly at- 



THE ISLANDS AND THE GOSPEL. 145 

tend public worship. These people send out 
workers into the regions beyond. Some years 
ago fifteen men were wanted to go to New 
Guinea The climate was bad ; the work was 
dangerous. Some of those who had gone be- 
fore were speared to death or died of fever. 
These things did not daunt them, and forty 
volunteered for the service. 

5. John Williams landed in Samoa in 1830. 
In a few years he gathered all the people into 
schools and churches and homes. In a decade 
30,000 embraced the gospel, and heathenism 
passed rapidly away. The Bible was trans- 
lated, and an edition of 10,000 copies was ex- 
hausted in seven years. In addition they send 
$6,000 annually to the lyondon Missionary So- 
ciety. The same missionary went to the Her- 
vey group. He found them without a written 
language; he left them reading the Bible in 
their own tongue ; he found them ignorant of 
the nature of worship ; when he left them 
they had family prayer every morning and 
evening. 

6. Hiram Bingham was the apostle to the 
Gilbert Islands. He and his wife were left 
alone with God among a savage people. They 
began at once the study of the language. As 
no one understood English, this was slow work. 

10 



146 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

They picked up word after word, till in six 
months they were able to address the people 
on gospel themes. They went from one island 
to another and preached Christ wherever they 
found one to listen. They undertook to re- 
duce the language to writing. He spent twen- 
ty-one years in translating the entire Bible. 
The people on these islands have been won to 
the faith. 

7. On Savage Island all captives and 
strangers were offered in sacrifice. Some con- 
verts from the Society Islands undertook to 
introduce the gospel. The attempt cost them 
their lives. Three years later a native made 
another trial. He was taken in a ship as near 
as it was thought prudent to go. Fastening 
his clothes and a Bible on his head he swam 
ashore. He was seized and was about to be 
sacrificed. He made himself understood and 
was allowed to deliver his message. The peo- 
ple were interested and spared him till the next 
day. Having gained their ears he soon gained 
their hearts. By his labors he revolutionized 
the Island. Savagery was renounced, and the 
people wanted to be taught the Christian way. 

8. According to Dr. Dennis there are in 
the Pacific thirty-eight groups and 2,000 is- 
lands, with an estimated population of 10,000,- 



THE ISLANDS AND THE GOSPEL. 147 

ooo. Fourteen groups are practically evan- 
gelized. These are the following : The Sand- 
wich, Marquesan, Fiji, Gilbert, KUice, Caro- 
line, Samoan, Friendly, Hervey, Loyalty, To- 
kelau. Austral, New Hebrides, and Society. 
Several other groups have been touched. On 
all these islands there are 2,260 stations, 1,369 
churches, 58,000 communicants, 225,000 ad- 
herents, 1,200 ministers, 9,074 unordained 
helpers, 2,398 schools, and 68,000 pupils. The 
whole Bible has been translated into nine lan- 
guages, and parts of it into thirty-three lan- 
guages. Three hundred and fifty islands are 
centers of gospel light. It will be seen that 
1,650 islands and 9,000,000 souls are yet in 
the densest darkness. 

2. In other islands good work has been 
done. This is true of Formosa, Madagascar, 
Ceylon, Borneo, Hong-Kong, Singapore, New 
Zealand, New Guinea, Sumatra, Java, Celebes. 
At the beginning of the century the people of 
Madagascar were pagans. The first workers 
were told they might as well try to convert 
sheep or asses. There are 230,000 adherents 
there now. The converts have been tested by 
years of persecution. Madagascar is the '' pearl 
of the mission fields. ' ' Of the Tilaories of New 
Zealand Bishop Selwyn said, '' I seem to see a 



148 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

nation born in a day.'* Karl Ritter spoke of 
the work there as the standing miracle of the 
age. Among the Dyaks of Borneo no one was 
allowed to marry who could not show a number 
of heads which he had recently struck oflF. 
Now they are living in accordance with the 
gospel. Makay found Formosa in darkness. 
There were no schools or churches or hospi- 
tals. There are now hospitals and churches, 
native evangelists and teachers, schools and 
colleges, and the native Christians largely sup- 
port them. Over the post office in Hong Kong 
are the words: ''As cold water to a thirsty 
soul, so is good news from a far country.*' 
God's intention is that every continent and 
every island of the sea shall hear the gospel of 
salvation. 

QUESTIONS. 
Why was so much done on islands ? What was the 
condition of the Sandwich Islands a century ago? 
When did the gospel reach them? What changes 
have been wrought ? What did Coan accomplish ? 
Who carried the gospel to the New Hebrides? What 
w^as the condition of Fiji when the gospel was 
brought there ? Who evangelized Samoa ? Who was 
the apostle of the Gilbert Islands ? What was done 
on Savage Island ? How many groups are there in 
the Pacific ? What has been done ? What remains ? 
In what other islands has the gospel been preached? 
How has it affected the peoples ? 



THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 149 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THK AMERICAN CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY. 

1 . This is the oldest missionary organiza- 
tion among the Disciples of Christ. It was 
founded in Cincinnati, October 24, 1849. Alex- 
ander Campbell was its first president. He 
continued in the oflSce till his death in 1866. 
The men who organized this society were ap- 
proved of God and honored with the confidence 
of their brethren. Among them were the fol- 
lowing: D. S. Burnet, W. K. Pendleton, 
Isaac Errett, James Challen, Charles Louis 
Loos, J. W. McGarvey, Benjamin Franklin, 
Walter Scott, John T. Johnson, L. H. Jameson, 
Jonas Hartzell. In later years men as true 
and as able came to the help of the Lord under 
the direction of the society. Nearly every 
name whom we have been taught to revere 
for sacrifice and leadership is found on the 
roster of the officiary and supporters of this 
organization. Our chief editors, writers, edu- 
cators and ministers have either served under 
its appointment, or have contributed to its 
port by pen and tongue and purse. 

2. The x\merican Christian Missionary 
Society was organized to do work at home and 



150 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

abroad. Dr. James T. Barclay offered to go 
to Jerusalem with his family to preach the 
primitive gospel. The thought of beginning 
work in the Holy City thrilled all hearts with 
joy. James Challen said: ''The pillar of 
cloud will yet cast its shadow over the infant 
mission to be established in Palestine, and the 
gleams of the pillar of fire will yet shoot up- 
ward to the skies, and be a beacon of hope to 
the outcasts of Israel and the benighted 
heathen.'' Dr Barclay began work in 1850. 
The mission was discontinued in 1861 on ac- 
count of the civil war. 

3. In 1853 Alexander Cross, a liberated 
slave, was sent to Africa as a missionary. Soon 
after reaching the field he took the African 
fever and died. Missions to the Cherokee In- 
dians and to China were planned, but suitable 
men could not be found to go out as mission- 
aries. In 1858 J. O. Beardslee and family 
were sent to Jamaica to found a mission. He 
spent six years on that island. This mission 
was afterward transferred to the Christian 
Woman's Board of Missions. 

4. The Society began work at home in 
1853. Since the organization of the Foreign 
Society all its work is on this continent. 
Much of its work is done in co-operation with 



THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 151 

local and state boards. The first work done 
in Chicago by this board was done in 1854, 
P. F. Hall being supported as minister. The 
Central Church is one result. While Nebraska 
was a territory D. R. Dungan was appointed 
missionary evangelist. Finding the work too 
great he asked for help R. C. Barrow was 
sent to be his associate. Together they organ- 
ized 122 churches in Nebraska. 

5. The American Society has a.ssisted in 
planting churches in many cities. A few of 
these are mentioned here : Boston, Buffalo, 
Rochester, Syracuse, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, 
Toronto, Columbus, Washington, New Orleans, 
Galveston, Houston, San Antonio, Portland, 
Spokane, Seattle, Salt lyake City, Denver, St. 
lyouis. Wichita, Kansas City. Besides this it 
has laid the foundations of the cause in Nova 
Scotia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Indian Terri- 
tory, Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Washington, 
California, Oregon. At the present time the 
work extends from Maine to Oregon, and from 
Canada to Florida and Texas. From 1849 to 
1897 ^'tii^ society has organized 2, 100 churches; 
baptized 31,204 penitent believers; and col- 
lected and disbursed ^1,197,699.41. This is 
only a part of its work. Churches have been 
helped to secure preachers and buildings. 



152 SAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

State and district organizations have been 
guided and strengthened. A missionary at- 
mosphere has been created. Because of its 
work other societies have found it easier to live 
and triumph. The tree is known by its fruits. 
By this test the American Society wishes to be 
judged. If it were to cease operations to-day 
and nothing more could be shown than its 
tattered banner and silent guns and the noble 
army enlisted by its agents, its history would 
be a glorious one. 

6. The American Society is sustained by 
the free-will offerings of the churches and 
individual members. The first Sunday in May 
is the time for the one annual offering in the 
churches for the support of this enterprise. 
The Society asks that its claims for liberal gifts 
be carefully considered. All our missionary 
undertakings succeed in direct proportion as 
the Home Mission work is made aggressive 
and successful. In hundreds of places fainting 
disciples are needing organization and care. A 
little help now will bridge the chasm between 
failure and success. The Society asks for an 
enlarged support because of its enlarged obli- 
gations. Recently the Acting Board has voted 
to unite with the local Boards of fourteen 
states and territories in supporting mission 



THE! AMERICAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 153 

work within their boundaries. The society 
asks the attention of the brethren to the work 
of city evangeHzation. The splendid results 
obtained in Chicago justify us in planning for 
the initiation of this work in other cities at 
once. As we hope to be strong in the centers 
of influence, we must make this department of 
missionary work prominent in our plans. The 
American Society asks Christian Endeavor 
Societies, in connection with their Good Citizen- 
ship work, to give sympathetic attention to 
Home Missions. America needs Christ for the 
solution of her problems, as Christ needs 
America for the conquest of the world. 

7. Most of the states have their own socie- 
ties. In 1 849 the churches in Indiana and Ken- 
tucky began to co-operate. The Ohio Society 
was organized in 1851. Half the churches in 
Ohio owe their existence, under God, to this so- 
ciety. What is true of Ohio is true of Missouri, 
Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and other states. 
The state societies report 193,371 baptisms, 
101,787 other additions, and$3, 373,064. 75 raised 
for the work carried on under their auspices. If 
we add those reported by the American Society 
we will have about 250,000 baptisms, 119,862 
other additions, and $4,570,764.16, raised and 
disbursed. Hundreds of congregations have 



154 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

been saved from discouragement and dissolu- 
tion; weak churches have been made strong; 
preachers have been put to work; and God has 
been honored by these missionary organizations. 



QUESTIONS. 

When and where was the American Society 
founded? Who were some of the men that took part 
in its founding ? What was the object of this soci- 
ety ? Who was the first missionary sent out? Where 
did he go ? How long was this mission continued ? 
When and by whom was Africa entered ? What was 
the fate of this man ? Why were not other missions 
founded ? Where did J. 6. Beardslee go ? What is 
the present field of the American Society? With 
what other organizations does it co-operate ? In what 
cities and states has this Society helped to plant 
churches ? How much money has it collected and 
disbursed? How many baptisms are reported? What 
other good work was done ? How is the American 
Society supported ? What are some of its claims for 
liberal offerings? What new work has it recently 
undertaken ? When did the states begin to organize 
to carry on mission work ? What have they done ? 
How many additions do they report? How much 
money have they raised ? What else have they done ? 
Judging these societies by their fruits, what should 
be said about them ? 



THE WOMAN^S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 155 

CHAPTER XXIII, 

TUn CHRISTIAN WOMAN'S BOARD OF 
MISSIONS. 

1. On the twenty-first day of October, 
1874, seventy women representing six states 
met in Cincinnati and organized this associa- 
tion. They walked by faith, not by sight. 
Their supreme desire was to do, for Christ's 
sake, whatever they could to have his salvation 
made known wherever there were souls to be 
won into his service. Every step of the way 
in which this work has gone forward has been 
marked by a full dependence upon God for 
guidance and a glad acknowledgement of him 
in all the fruits borne. The object of this or- 
ganization is to cultivate a missionary spirit, 
to encourage missionary effort in the churches, 
to disseminate missionary intelligence and to 
secure systematic contributions for missionary 
purposes. 

2. In January, 1876, the funds in hand 
were sufficient to send one missionary and his 
family to Jamaica. The work then adopted on 
that island has remained a mission of this 
Board. There are now nineteen churches and 
eleven missionaries there. In 1882 four young 
women were sent as its first missionaries to 



156 HAND BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

India. Thej' are still in its employment in 
that field. Four stations, namely, Bilaspur, 
Bina, Mahoba and Deoghur, are occupied by 
fifteen missionaries. 

3. In 1886 the Young People's Depart- 
ment of the Woman's Board was begun by the 
organizing of Mission Bands. Later all boys 
and girls taking part in this mission work 
were called *'The Builders." Most of the 
buildings for which the Builders have provided 
the funds have been erected in India. These 
comprise the bungalow in Bilaspur built by 
Miss Graybiel ; the Chata school building and 
the hospital buildings finished in 1895 ; the 
bungalow in Bina and the bungalow and or- 
phanage buildings in Mahoba. Others will 
be erected in these stations and at Deoghur in 
the near future. 

4. In the United States, Montana and Col- 
orado have been adopted by the Woman's 
Board as its special field. In other states the 
cause of primitive Christianity has been planted 
and upheld by appropriations for state evangel- 
ists and local preachers. These have thus 
formed two classes of Mission work. Those 
permanently adopted have been maintained 
with what reductions could be made from year 
to 3^ear. The appropriations for the other 



THE woman's board OF MISSIONS. 157 

class have been given in different sections as 
the sufl&ciency of funds and promise of the 
work would permit. 

5, One of the objects of the Board, as 
formulated in its constitution, is the mainte- 
nance of schools. These have been supported 
in Jamaica and India under the direction of its 
missionaries. The Mountain Mission at Hazel 
Green, Kentucky, is a school of the academic 
grade. In it young men and women who wish 
to become district school teachers in the state 
are taught. A Chinese school is taught in 
Portland, Oregon, under the superintendency 
of Jeu Hawk, a native of China. He was led 
to Christ in St. Louis and educated in Drake 
University. The most recently inaugurated 
school work is at C. Juarez, Mexico Miss 
Bertha C. Mason teaches there, and M. L. 
Hoblit conducts evangelistic services. 

6, After the mission church had been 
established in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to provide 
a church home for our young men and women 
in the university, the door of opportunity was 
opened for this Board to take the initial step 
in the plan of Bible teaching that provides for 
Bible Chairs beside state universities The 
students are taught to rightly divide the Word 
of God; the literary beauties and divine and 



158 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

transforming power are set forth. This work 
has appealed to all the best educators; it is 
being richly blessed of God to the helping of 
all our missions and the true upbuilding of 
Christian character. 

7. The organic part of the Christian 
Woman's Board of Missions comprises local 
missionary societies called auxiliaries and the 
various societies in the young people's depart- 
ment. This Board has from the first stood for 
the education of heart and head. The belief 
is strong that, when the heart holds Christ as 
King, and the head becomes intelligent con- 
cerning God's Word and the condition of 
humanity in the world, the means to carry the 
gospel to each unsaved soul will not be lacking. 

8. Two papers, the Missionary Tidings 
2iTidi Junior Builders are published each month. 
These give reports from the societies, letters 
from the missionaries, messages from national 
and state ofiicers and programs for the monthly 
meetings. The motto under which all this 
work goes forward is : * ^ The love of Christ 
constraineth us. " Sample copies of the papers 
and price lists of the leaflets, which assist in 
the study of the work, will be furnished upon 
application to Miss I^ois A. White, 160 N. 
Delaware St., Indianapolis, Indiana. 



THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 159 

QUESTIONS. 

When was the Woman's Board organized? What 
is its purpose ? When was the first worker sent out ? 
Where was he sent? How many churches are there 
in that field now? How many young women were 
sent to India ? How many stations have been opened 
there? What is the special work of the Builders? 
What buildings have they paid for ? What states has 
this Board adopted ? Where have schools been opened ? 
Where have Bible Chairs been established ? What is 
the object of these Chairs? What papers are pub- 
lished by this Board ? What do these papers contain ? 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THK FOREIGN CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY. 

I. This society was organized in Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, October 21, 1875. Its object 
is to make disciples of all nations, and teach 
them to observe all things whatsoever Christ 
has commanded. Its principal place of busi- 
ness is in Cincinnati, Ohio. Isaac Errett was 
its first President; Robert Moffett, its first Cor- 
responding Secretary; andW. S. Dickinson, its 
first Treasurer. Its ofiicers for the current 
missionary year are: President, C. ly. Loos; 
Vice-Presidents, J. A. Lord, L- E. Brown, G. 



160 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

A. Miller, I. J. Spencer, W. S. Dickinson; 
Recording Secretary, S. M. Cooper; Corre- 
sponding Secretary, A. McLean; Treasurer, 
F. M. Rains. 

2. Work is carried on in six fields, as fol- 
lows: England, Scandinavia, Turkey, India, 
Japan, and China. Its agents preach at sev- 
enty-eight stations and out-stations. Schools 
have been opened in India, China, Japan and 
Turkey. Medical missionaries are at work in 
these four fields. Great numbers of Gospels 
and tracts have been sold. The Word of Life 
has been carried into many homes by the 
women connected with the missions. There 
are now 142 missionaries and helpers laboring 
under the auspices of this Society. Of these 
forty-two are men, thirty-four are women, and 
sixty-six are natives. Of these again, thirty- 
three are in India, thirty-eight are in Japan, 
forty-nine are in China, fourteen are in Turkey, 
eight are in Scandinavia, and ten are in Eng- 
land. The receipts for the first year amounted 
to ^1,706 35; for the last year (1896), to $92>r 
867 21. The whole amount received from the 
first is ^902,712.51. The additions aggregate 
8,326. 

3. The Foreign Society was organized to 
work in non-Christian lands. Its founders 



THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 161 

were ambitious to preach the gospel where 
Christ had not been named, that they might 
not build upon another man's foundation. 
The reason the Society did its first work in 
Europe was that men could not be found to 
work in Asia and Africa. The leading spirits 
in the society felt that it ought to have work- 
ers along the Nile and the Niger and in the 
crowded cities of Japan and China. Had 
qualified men been found ready to go, they 
would have been sent. H. S. Earl was going 
to England at his own charges. It was thought 
by many that it would be a good thing for him 
to be connected with the Society. The sainted 
Timothy Coop and his sons pleaded that more 
men might be sent to England and contributed 
veryliberally towards their support. J. H. Gar- 
rison and W. T. Moore and others pressed the 
claims of this field upon the Society. There are 
now fourteen churches, 2,007 members, and 
2,184 Sunday-school children in England con- 
nected with the Society. There are men at work 
in Eondon, Southampton, Liverpool, Birken- 
head, Margate, Chester, Lancaster, Gloucester, 
Southport, and Cheltenham. 

4. Dr. A. Hoick opened a preaching place 
in Copenhagen, Denmark, in June, 1876. 
There is now a flourishing church in that city. 

11 



162 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

As a result of his writings and preaching there 
are twenty places in Norway where the gospel 
is preached regularly. At ten of these places 
there are church buildings Dr. Hoick is anx- 
ious to enter Sweden. He believes that if he 
had $10,000 a year he could capture all Scan- 
dinavia. There are 1,076 members in the 
churches in Scandinavia, and 369 children in 
the Sunday-schools. 

5. G. N. Shishmanian was sent to Con- 
stantinople in 1879. He has a church and a 
school in that city, and has opened stations in 
Bardizag, Smyrna, Sevas, Zarah, Antioch, 
Biridjek, and Giol Dagh. He has gone out 
over the Empire and has preached in many 
towns and villages. Six years after his arrival 
Dr. Garabed Kevorkian joined him. He lives 
in Marsovan. He has charge of the work there 
and in Kapon Kara, Haji Keni, and in Chec- 
harshambeh. Some work has been done in Ma- 
rash, Aintab, and Alboostan. The converts 
number 943; the pupils in the Sunday-schools, 
374; the pupils in the day schools, 260 Dur- 
ing the last year fifteen have suffered martyr- 
dom. Turkey has two chapels, one in Smyrna, 
and one in Marash. 

6. The mission in India was founded in 
1882. In September of that year G. L. Whar- 



THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 168 

ton and Albert Norton and their families and 
four ladies sent by the Woman's Board sailed 
from New York. The workers have been rein- 
forced from time to time. The stations occu- 
pied are as follows : Hurda, Bilaspur, Mungeli, 
Chafwa, Rahatgaon, and Damoh. The work 
has several branches; the evangelistic, the 
medical, the educational, and the literary. 
G. ly. Wharton has charge of the Bible and 
Training School in Hurda. Dr. Durand has 
the superintendency of the hospital and dis- 
pensary and carries on work among lepers. 
Mrs. Jackson teaches the boys ; Miss Judson 
teaches the girls ; Miss Thompson works 
among the women in Hurda and in the region 
round about; Mrs Wharton conducts the 
book-shop. In Bilaspur M. D. Adams preaches 
and teaches; Mrs. Adams looks after the book- 
store, and does what she can for the women 
and children. E. M. and Dr. Gordon are lo- 
cated in Mungeli and have charge of all the 
work at that station. Mr. and Mrs. J. G. 
McGavran and Miss Josepha and Miss Stella 
Franklin and Dr. Mary T. McGavran are in 
Damoh. There are a hundred boys in the or- 
phanage. These must be cared for and taught. 
Buildings are in course of erection. The con- 
tractor must be watched all the time. There are 



164 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

now 1 24 converts in this mission, 566 children in 
the Sunday-school, and 299 in the day school. 

7. Japan was entered in 1883. G. T. 
Smith and C. E. Garst and their families w^ere 
the pioneers. The following places are occu- 
pied: Tokio, Akita, Shonai, Innai, Arakawa 
and Hon jo. There are other places where the 
gospel is preached statedly by agents of the 
Society. Japan has five chapels and two homes. 
In the Girls' Home young women are trained 
to help in the mission. A Bible school has 
recently been opened. There is an industrial 
department in this school. This is to enable 
the students to pay their own expenses. The 
latest statistics are as follows ; Christians, 
278; children in Sunday-schools, 561 ; in day 
schools, 368. The missionaries preach as they 
have opportunity ; they visit the people in 
their homes and receive visits from them ; 
they teach the English Bible and do every 
thing in their power to win the Japanese to 
Christ. 

8. It was not till 1886 that the Foreign 
Society sent its first representative to China. 
Dr. W. E. Macklin was chosen to begin the 
work. He selected Nankin as the center of 
operations. Soon after his arrival E. P. 
Hearnden and A. P. H. Saw went out from 



THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 16S 

England, and F. E. Meigs and E. T. Williams 
and their families joined him from America. 
The other places in which work is carried on 
are these : Shanghai, Wuhu, Chu Cheo, I^u- 
hoh, Tsungming, Wu Wei Cho, Yu Ho Tsz, 
Tung-cho, and Lu Cheo Fu. China has one 
hospital, two dispensaries, two school build- 
ings and five homes. Over 10,000 patients 
are treated annually. The gospel is preached 
in hundreds of places beside those named. 
There are 109 converts, 100 children in the 
Sunday-schools, and 109 in the day schools. 
There are about forty boys in the college. 
These are being trained to teach and preach. 
9. The society is preparing to open a mis- 
sion in Africa. E. E. Faris and Dr. H. N. 
Biddle are now on their way to the Congo 
Free State. More than forty years ago the 
Disciples of Christ sent a man to Liberia. 
Twelve years ago a second effort was made to 
reach Africa with the gospel. The funds of 
the Society were so limited that it was thought 
expedient to proceed no further. It is believed 
that the present attempt will be crowned with 
success. 

QUKSTIONS. 
When and where was the Foreign Society organ- 
ized? What is its object? Who was its first presi- 



166 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

dent ? Who are its officers now ? In what fields does 
it work ? How many workers are there under its 
auspices? Where are they? How much money has 
been received from the first? How many converts 
have there been ? Why does the Society do work in 
Europe ? What has been done in England ? Who 
went to Scandinavia for the Society ? What has he 
accomplished? What men were sent to Turkey? 
Where do they live and work ? What triumphs have 
they won ? When and by whom was India entered ? 
What do the workers do ? What stations have been 
opened ? How many converts are there ? Who were 
the first missionaries to Japan ? What has the lyord 
wrought through his servants? In what towns in 
China has the society its agents at work? Who have 
started for Africa ? Where do they expect to locate ? 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE CHURCH EXTENSION FUND. 

I. This fund dates from October, 1883. 
For five years the work of Church Extension 
was in the hands of a committee of the Gen- 
eral Christian Missionary Convention. There 
being no corresponding secretary of this com- 
mittee to get and keep the work before the 
people, and no day for special offerings, the 
receipts dwindled from ^3,000 the first year to 
^937 the fourth. 



THE CHURCH EXTENSION FUND. 167 

2. In 1888 the present Board was elected 
with headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. 
F. M. Rains served the committee as corre- 
sponding secretary for one year, and the Board 
for two years. G. W. Muckley succeeded him 
and is the corresponding secretary at the pres- 
ent time. All moneys should be sent to him. 
His address is No. 600 Waterworks Building, 
Kansas City, Missouri. The Board is made 
up of men who know the west thoroughly, 
and who have means of examining into the 
merits of every applicant. They loan money 
only to such mission churches as give the 
greatest promise for the future. 

3. The Church Kxtension Fund is a loan 
fund. The money is put out in sums of from 
$150 to ^1,000. The loans are to be returned 
to the Board in five equal installments, with 
four per cent, interest. The interest is charged 
to cover the expense of handling the money; 
it also acts as a stimulus to the church to pay 
what it has borrowed. A church is aided in 
the following way : District, state and na- 
tional societies send out men to preach the 
gospel and to organize churches. If a church 
cannot build a house of worship without aid, 
the Board promises to loan them sufficient 
money to complete the work, after they have 



168 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

done all in their power to buy a lot and to put 
up a building. While the building is in course 
of erection, the Board examines the Abstract 
of title and a copy of the deed, and prepares 
all the legal papers. When the title is clear 
and the building finished, the money promised 
is paid over, all notes and mortgages having 
been properly executed 

4. The Board is now making about one 
loan a week. Three hundred and twenty 
churches have been helped since the beginning. 
Fifty-nine have paid back their loans in full ; 
over ^73,000 have been received in returned 
loans and interest. The preparation of legal 
papers, the examination of titles, insurance 
policies and incorporation papers, together 
with taking care of all the notes, collecting 
principal and interest, take so much time and 
care that the Board was compelled to secure the 
vServices of a man all the time to take charge of 
this department of the work. He is the office 
secretary and treasurer There are now two 
hundred and sixty loans out. These are in 
thirty-seven states and territories. There are 
three thousand eight hundred notes to look 
after. This is a banking institution or a build- 
ing and loan association of the church with a 



THE CHURCH EXTENSION FUND. 169 

capital stock of nearly $137,000. The stock 
is increasing constantly. 

5. The object of Church Extension is not 
to pay old debts brought on by imprudence 
and mismanagement, but is for the purpose of 
aiding needy and meritorious people to build 
houses of worship in new fields. Churches 
helped by this fund become missionary 
churches and contribute to all missionary enter- 
prises. This fund aids mission churches to get 
property early in the history of a new town, 
when lots are cheap. It is the duty of every 
Disciple of Christ to help plant the gospel in 
new and growing towns. There are twenty- 
four hundred of our churches without build- 
ings New churches are being organized every 
week. It will be seen that this board has a 
large work before it. At the present time the 
applications average one a day. 



QUESTIONS. 

When did the work of Church Kxtension begin ? 
Who was the first corresponding secretary ? Who 
was his successor? What is his address? Is the 
money loaned or given ? What interest is charged ? 
When does the board promise assistance? How much 
does it promise? When is the money paid over? 
How many loans are made in a year? How many 
churches have been helped from the first ? What are 



170 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

the duties of the treasurer and office secretary? How 
many loans are now outstanding ? How much money 
is there in the fund ? What is the aim of church ex- 
tension ? How many churches are without buildings? 
Are they asking for aid ? 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE BOARD OF NKGRO EDUCATION AND 
KVANGEI.IZATION. 

1. This Board was elected in 1890. For 
one year no one was found to serve as corre- 
sponding secretary. Though frequent ap- 
peals for funds were made through the press, 
only thirty-five dollars was contributed. After 
defraying all expenses, six dollars and ten cents 
were left in the treasury. That year, however, 
through the efforts of J. B. I^ehman and Miss 
Anna Doyen, ^680.84 was raised for the South- 
ern Christian Institute. 

2 . At the national convention held in Alle- 
gheny, in 1891, the Board was reorganized, and 
C. C. Smith was chosen corresponding secre- 
tary. He commenced work in January, 1892. 
At the same time he was chosen secretary of 
the Southern Christian Institute. At the con- 
vention of that year he reported for both 



BOARD OF NEGRO EDUCATION. 171 

Boards. The election of Secretary Smith 
marks an epoch in the history of this work. 
His eloquent advocacy of the claims of the 
freedmen has broken down prejudice and has 
enlisted the sympathies of multitudes. 

3. The Board of the Southern Christian 
Institute was reorganized, and four members 
of the Board of Negro Education and Evangel- 
ization were chosen members of this Board. 
It is necessary to have this separate Board of 
the Southern Christian Institute with three 
members from Mississippi, in order to keep the 
charter of the Southern Christian Institute in- ' 
violate ; so that, while practically the work is 
all controlled by one Board, it is necessary to 
have the two Boards. 

4. During the years that this Board has 
been in existence it has guided, fostered, and 
financially aided the work among the freed- 
men in different parts of the South. Three 
schools have been maintained. These are: 
The Southern Christian Institute, located at 
Edwards, Mississippi; the Christian Bible 
School, located at Louisville, Kentucky; the 
Lum Graded School, located at Mt Willing, 
Alabama. These schools are doing good w^ork, 
and all have bright prospects. 

5. The Board has four evangelists in the 



172 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

field. These are as follows: J. H. Rogers, in 
Florida; M. Powell, in Missouri; J. A. Collins, 
in Maryland; and William Alphin, in Kansas. 
These men are rendering their own people 
valuable service. They are planting churches 
in new fields, and strengthening and sustain- 
ing the work already established. Several 
boys and girls in Hiram College are being- 
helped. They intend to go back as leaders 
and teachers of their own race as soon as the}' 
have completed their studies 

6. The benefits and blessings these schools 
and these workers confer upon their own race 
are too numerous and too great to be described. 
The results of the enterprise far exceed the 
hopes of the secretary and his associates and 
friends. New doors are being opened daily. 
The Board proposes to enter these as rapidly 
as the funds in the treasury will warrant. 



QUESTIONS. 

When did this work begin ? How much money 
was raised the first year ? Who was the first and only 
secretary? What other Board does he represent? 
Why are there two Boards ? How many schools are 
supported by this Board? Where are they located? 
How many evangelists are employed? Where do they 
work ? What do they do ? In what college are boys 



THE BOARD OF MINTSTERIAL RELIEF. l78 

and girls helped? Has this work been prospered? 
Are there any signs of Divine approval ? What is the 
purpose of the Board ? 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THK BOARD OF MINISTERIAL RELIEF. 

I . The existence and success of this Board 
are very largely due to the wisdom and conse- 
cration of A. M. Atkinson. At the missionary 
convention held in Dallas in October, 1895, he 
delivered an address in which he set forth the 
needs, the spirit, the purpose and plan of the 
contemplated enterprise. Not only so ; he 
gave one thousand dollars as the beginning of 
a National Ministerial Relief Fund. Recently 
he has added five thousand dollars. A Board 
consisting of F M. Drake, W. S. Dickinson, 
J P. Torbitt, F. E. Udell, Howard Cale, Amos 
Clifford, G. W. Snider, Simeon FrazierandA. 
M. Atkinson, was elected. OflScers were chosen 
as follows : President, Howard Cale ; vice 
president, W. S. Dickinson ; treasurer, Amos 
Clifford ; recording secretary, Simeon Frazier; 
corresponding secretary, A. M. Atkinson. 
The principal ofl&ce of the Board is in Indian- 



174 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

apolis. The corresponding secretary' s address 
is Wabash, Indiana. All the officials serve 
without pay. 

2. The object of this Board is to make 
provision for the care of our old and disabled 
preachers and those dependent on them, the 
widows of deceased preachers, our missionaries 
in this and foreign fields who, through misfor- 
tune, may need a helping hand. The motto 
is, ''Ministering to the necessities of saints. *' 
If it is Christlike to bear one another's bur- 
dens, this attempt on a national scale to relieve 
the distress of veterans who bore the heat and 
the burden of the day, must commend itself to 
the hearts of all Christian people. 

3. The Board has adopted the permanent 
endowment plan. Of the moneys donated 
seventy-five per cent, is invested in well-chosen 
interest-bearing securities. The remainder is 
available for use as it may be needed. The 
interest on the endowment will be used for re- 
lief purposes. The permanent fund may be 
increased by persons who may direct that their 
gifts shall be so invested. Governor Drake 
gave $ 1 ,000 as a loan fund. This is all invested ; 
only the interest can be used. Others have 
given in the same way. 

4. The receipts for the first year amounted 



THE BOARD OF MINISTERIAL RELIEF. 175 

to $5,840.45. The sums paid out in relief 
aggregate ^1,144.70. With this amount fifty- 
six worthy and needy persons have been 
ministered to. Of these seventeen were preach- 
ers and their wives, and seven were widows of 
preachers. The beneficiaries did not complain ; 
far from it; they suffered in silence. The 
secretary found them out; they did not apply 
to him for aid. God wishes the co-operation 
of those whom he has blessed with a supera- 
bundance, that the righteous may not be for- 
saken and that his children may not beg for 
bread. 



QUESTIONS. 

To whom is the credit of the existence of the 
Board of Ministerial Relief due ? What did he do to 
start the work ? Who constitute the Board ? Who 
are the officers? Where is the principal place of 
business? What is the object of this Board? How 
are all raoneys given used? How much was given 
the first year? How much was used in relief ? How 
many were assisted ? Is there any pressing need for 
such a fund? Does the Lord want his people to 
minister to the necessities of saints? 



176 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

MKDICAI. MISSIONS. 

I. Our lyord was the first and greatest 
medical missionary. He went about all Gali- 
lee, teaching in the synagogues, and preaching 
the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all 
manner of disease and all manner of sickness 
among the people. The report of him went 
forth into all Syria: and they brought unto him 
all that were sick, holden with divers diseases 
and torments, possessed with demons, and epi- 
leptic, and palsied ; and he healed them. ^ One 
evening they brought unto him many possessed 
with demons ; and he cast out the spirits with 
a word, and healed all that were sick; that it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah 
the prophet saying: Himself took our infirmi- 
ties, and bare our diseases.^ On his next cir- 
cuit he preached the gospel of the kingdom, 
and healed all manner of disease and all man- 
ner of sickness.^ On another occasion a great 
multitude of his disciples, and a great number 
of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and 
the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, came to hear 
him; and to be healed of their diseases; and 
they that were troubled with unclean spirits 

1. Matt, iv: 23, 24. 2. Matt, viii: 16, 17. 3. Matt, ix: 35. 



MEDICAL MISSIONS. 177 

were healed. And all the multitude sought to 
touch him : for power came forth from him, and 
healed them all.^ When John sent to inquire, 
Art thou he that cometh, or look we for an- 
other ? he said: ' ' Go your way and tell John 
the things which ye do hear and see; the blind 
receive their sight, and the deaf hear, and the 
dead are raised up, and the poor have good 
tidings preached to them."^ Two-thirds of 
all his miracles were miracles of healing. 

2. Before he sent out the twelve disciples, 
he gave them authority over unclean spirits, 
to cast them out, and to heal all manner of 
disease and all manner of sickness. He said 
to them: *'As ye go, preach, saying, *The 
kingdom of heaven is at hand,' Heal the 
sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out 
demons; freely ye received, freely give."^ To 
the lame beggar Peter said: '' In the name of 
Jesus Christ of Nazareth; walk.'' At once 
his feet and ankle-bones received strength, and 
he entered the temple, walking, and leaping, 
and praising God.' In Jerusalem they even 
carried out the sick into the streets, and laid 
them on beds and couches, that, as Peter came 
by, at the least his shadow might overshadow 



4. Luke vi: 17-19. 5. Matt, xi: 2-5. 6. Matt, x: 1, •; 
Acts iii: 6-8. 

12 



178 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

some of them. Multitudes from the cities 
round about came, bringing sick folk, and 
them that were vexed with unclean spirits: 
and they were healed every one/ While 
Paul was in Ephesus God wrought special 
miracles by his hands: insomuch that unto the 
sick were carried away from his body handker- 
chiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed 
from them, and the evil spirits went out . ^ God 
bore witness to his apostles, both by signs and 
wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts 
of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will. 

3. Medical missions in modern times began 
in 1 84 1. There are now five societies ex- 
clusively devoted to this department of mis- 
sionary work. Nearly all the societies have 
some medical workers in the field. Before the 
year 1861 there were not more than twenty 
physicians in heathen lands; now there are 
359, and 74 of these are women. The need is 
yet very great. New York City has 3,500 
physicians, or one for every five hundred peo- 
ple. In the heathen world there is one for 
three millions. Dr. Kerr has a training school 
in Canton. He has sent out one hundred 
Chinese physicians to work among their own 
people. The Syrian Protestant College in 

8. Acts v: 15, 16. 9. Acts xix: 12. 



MEDICAL MISSIONS. 179 

Beirut has trained a large number. The 
Dufferin Fund is not a missionary enterprise, 
but it is an offshoot of missions in India. There 
are connected with this fund sixty-five hospi- 
tals and dispensaries. In these a million 
patients are treated annually. There are 
243 students in medical colleges and in training 
classes. 

4. Medical missions unlock closed doors 
and dispose men and women to hear the gospel. 
It was said of Dr. Peter Parker that he opened 
China at the point of the lancet. Before pub- 
lic preaching was allowed, he opened a hospital 
in Canton. Dr. Happer succeeded him. It 
was on account of his medical skill that he was 
allowed to remain in that city. Li Hung 
Chang sent for Drs. McKenzie and Howard, 
when Lady Li was at the gates of the grave. 
Their treatment, with the blessing of God, re- 
stored her. In his gratitude he built a dispen- 
sary and furnished the drugs. Lady Li built 
a hospital for women and children and placed 
it in charge of Dr. Howard. Dr. Macklin tells 
us that when he went to Nankin the people 
were disposed to drive him away. When the 
hospital was finished they hung up scrolls and 
banners and made a feast and donated a hand- 
some sum to defray expenses. In Korea and 



180 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

Persia and Africa prejudice has been conquered 
and people have been won to the faith by the 
medical work of the missions. Dr. Grant 
tells how the people attempted to kiss his feet 
and even his shoes at the door, and how they 
thanked God that he could not refuse medicine 
to a Moslem. A Kurdish chief threatened to 
take Dr. Cochran's life. He became blind and 
had to go to the Christian doctor for help. His 
hate vanished, and he was willing to learn of 
Christ. Two evangelists sought to enter Cash- 
mere. The people did not want them and 
chased them out of the valley. A physician 
was sent and the door was opened for the gos- 
pel. Dr. Post has healed thousands. Patients 
come from far and near. They kiss his shadow, 
and bow at his feet. They listen to the preach- 
ing and join in the songs. 

5. Medical missionaries relieve pain and 
cure the sick. The non-Christian peoples know 
almost nothing about disease or medicine. In 
the east, we are told, a sick person is an object 
of loathing and terror. He is put in an out- 
house, is poorly fed and rarely visited. Some- 
times the medicine-men beat him to drive out 
the demon, or they place him before a roasting 
fire till his skin is blistered, and then throw him 
into cold water. They resort to charms and 



MEDICAL MISSIONS. 181 

idolatrous rites; they beat gongs, blow horns, 
and explode fire-crackers. Sometimes they 
cut the aching place open to let the pain out. 
Dr. Macklin was visited by a man whose arm 
was out of joint. He had gone to every Chi- 
nese physician in Nankin and to no purpose. 
They wrote prescriptions, burnt the paper, 
mixed the ashes with water, and gave him the 
water to drink. Medicines are made of snakes, 
centipedes, scorpions, toads, bones, maggots, 
lizards, and other articles of equal efficacy. 
If the treatment fails, it is owing to some de- 
merit in the patient or the physician. Some 
people said to a missionary: *' We have been 
healed by your medicine, and now we propose 
to accept your God.'' 

6. The medical work is auxiliary to the 
evangelistic. Preaching the gospel is the main 
thing. In every hospital and dispensary the 
scriptures are read and expounded. The pa- 
tients are urged to accept Christ as their Savior 
and Lord. Dr. Kerr has treated a million 
people in Canton. They came from all parts 
of the Kmpire. A thousand towns and villages 
are represented in the hospital in Amoy. Dr. 
Christie of Mookden says : '' Patients come to 
us from all parts of the province ; many not 
only learn the message of salvation for them- 



182 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

selves, but carry it to the remote villages and 
hamlets. '* Patients come to Beirut from Bag- 
dad, Turkestan, from the Great Sahara, from 
the head waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, 
from the villages in the lyebanon, from Cyprus 
and Asia Minor, Ten thousand are treated 
annually in the Memorial hospital in Nankin. 
Dr. Mackay in Formosa went about with his 
forceps in one hand and the Bible in the other. 
He extracted 21,000 teeth while preaching 
Christ on that island. Everything is made to 
contribute to the furtherance of the gospel. 



QUESTIONS. 

Who was the greatest medical missionary ? Name 
some of the cures wrought by him ? How far did his 
fame extend ? What message did he send to John ? 
What charge did he give to the twelve disciples ? 
What cures did they work ? How was God's power 
manifested? How many medical missionaries are 
there now in the field ? Is the supply equal to the 
need ? What is the effect of medical missions ? Give 
some details? Do the non-Christians know much 
about disease and the proper treatment of disease ? 
Give illustrations of their ignorance? What is the 
principal thing in missions ? Why ? 



WOMEN AND MISSIONS. 188 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

WOMKN AND MISSIONS. 

I. Organized missionary work, as pro- 
moted by American women, began in 1861 
with the Mission Society in New York City. 
This society was made up of members from six 
religious bodies, and lasted seven years. There 
are now seventy-five missionary societies rep- 
resenting the women of Christendom. These 
societies support 2,700 unmarried women, the 
wives of some missionaries, and some men. 
They receive and disburse about $2,000,000 a 
year. Most of these societies are auxiliary to 
other and older societies; a few are absolutely 
independent. While there are slight differ- 
ences as respects organization and methods of 
work, the aim of all the societies is the same. 
They seek to disseminate information, to gather 
money, and to send out and support workers. 
They aim to give every Christian woman at 
home a share in the evangelization of the world, 
and to carry the gospel where, without women, 
it could not be efficiently carried. In their 
regular meetings they have informed them- 
selves as to the teaching of the scriptures, and 
as to the condition of people in all parts of the 
world. They have learned to write, and speak 



184 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

and pray, and conduct meetings in public. 
Years ago one minister insisted on being pres- 
ent at all the meetings of the women in his 
church. He said he did not know what these 
women would pray for, if they were left to 
themselves. No one has any fears on that 
score now. 

2 . The wives of the missionaries are as use- 
ful as their husbands. They help in a thousand 
ways. They visit the people in their homes, 
teach in the day and Sunday-schools, and as- 
sist in all the services. A Christian home is 
an object lesson to non-Christian peoples. It 
is one of the best of all evangelizing agencies. 
One can not think of Robert Moffat without 
at the same time thinking of Mary, or of Jud- 
son without thinking of the noble women who 
were associated with him in the work. As 
Bible readers, as teachers, as nurses and as 
medical missionaries, women are doing very 
much. Miss Whately spent thirty years in 
Egypt. She supported herself and her assist- 
ants for years. She trained many girls for 
lives of usefulness. Miss Agnew educated 
three generations in Ceylon. She was spoken 
of as the mother of a thousand daughters. 
Miss Bessie Mangan opened a medical work 
in Jaffa. She put her fortune and her life 



WOMEN AND MISSIONS. 185 

into that splendid enterprise. Women are 
in all parts of the world serving as mission- 
aries. There is no climate so deadly; there is 
no tribe so hostile to the gospel and its agents; 
there is no people so savage and degraded; 
there is no filth so great, that they fear to 
enter and do their full duty towards the 
evangelization of the people. Strong men 
said that women could not work in Hawaii, 
but they did and acted the part of heroines. 
In times of famine and plague and persecution 
they have shown their readiness to suffer and 
die for the I,ord Jesus. 

3. There is much work that only women 
can do. In some Pagan and in all Mohammedan 
lands, the women can not be reached by men. 
They do not attend public services as they do 
at home. On no account can a man enter a 
zenana or a harem. A male physician can not 
see the face nor feel the pulse of a woman. 
In some extreme cases a man has been called 
in to see a dying woman. She was behind a 
screen, and, a slave put her hand through a 
slit in the screen, that he might make an ex- 
amination. These women must be reached 
with the gospel. They do more than their 
husbands to support the temples and the 
priests. It is said that seven-eighths of the 



186 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

$400,000,000 annually given in China for idol 
worship is given by women. The same is 
true in other lands. To the female medical 
missionary all doors are open. A Hindu said 
to Dr. Clark: " What we dread is the presence 
of your Christian women, for they are win- 
ning our homes, and of your Christian phys- 
icians, for they are winning our hearts.'' 

4, The degraded condition of w^omen in 
heathen lands appeals to Christian women 
everywhere. * ' Doomed to an enforced in- 
feriority, the life of a heathen woman is with- 
out an inspiring purpose, and, as a consequence, 
it sinks to a drudgery worse than the treadmill.' ' 
Bainbridge states that there are 300,000,000 
women living in the Buddhist hope of being 
born again a man, and not a toad or a snake; 
and 90,000,000 more in the most abject slavery 
of mind and body to their Hindu lords; and 
80,000,000 more in Moslem harems, unloved, 
uncared for, but as tools of lust, and in the cer- 
tainty of being supplanted when the charms 
of youth are gone. In India there are 20,000,- 
000 widows; 400,000 of these are under nine- 
teen years of age; 200,000 are under fourteen; 
and 78,000 are under nine. Formerly 'the 
widow was burned with the body of her hus- 
band. Her lot as a widow is so full of hard- 



WOMEN AND MISSIONS. 187 

ship and anguish, that she regrets the change 
introduced by the English. Women in heathen 
lands are taught that they have no intellect and 
are incapable of receiving instruction; that they 
rank no higher than dogs and donkeys; and 
that it is only by becoming men that they can 
enter paradise and everlasting delight. 

5. While women have been organized for 
missionary work for a few decades only, they 
have contributed to the triumph of the gospel 
from the beginning. It was to women that the 
honor of being the first to announce the fact 
the Savior was alive was given. Paul speaks 
of women who labored with him in the gospel, 
and whose names are in the book of life. The 
Christianization of France was in a large meas- 
ure due to Clotilda; that of England to Bertha 
and Ethelburga; that of Russia to Olga; that of 
Poland to Dambroka. Women aided the work 
in Ireland and Germany and in other countries. 
Uhlhorn says: ''As mothers who trained for 
the church its standard-bearers, as deaconesses 
in the service of mercy, as martyrs who vied 
with men for the immortal crown, serving 
everywhere, praying, toiling, enduring, women 
shared in the great conflict, and to them surely, 
in no small degree, is the victory due." Then, 
as now, the words of the prophet, were ful- 



188 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 



filled: * ' The lyOrd gave the word; the women 
that publish the tidings are a great host.'' 

QUESTIONS. 

When did women organize for missionary work ? 
What are they doing now? What are their aims? 
How have women aided the work in the field ? How 
have they manifested their heroism ? What is there 
that only women can do ? What is the condition of 
women in non-Christian lands ? Have women con- 
tributed to the triumph of the gospel from the first? 
What did they do in the early church? What did 
they do in the Middle Ages ? 



CHAPTER XXX. 

OPEN DOORS. 

I. Almost the whole world is now open to 
the gospel. Thibet and Mecca are the only 
exceptions. A century ago most of the great 
non-Christian nations were closed. Then it 
was impossible for missionaries to enter them 
and preach and teach Christ. God has gone 
before his people and has broken in pieces the 
gates of brass. He has set before them open 
doors, and no power can shut them. The 
ends of the earth are neighbors now. No na- 
tion can live or die to itself. 



OPEN DOORS. 189 

2. China was closed against all strangers 
for centuries. She watched her ports and 
carefully excluded all Christian agents. It 
was a capital offence for a Chinese to teach a 
stranger the language of the country. Morri- 
son was not allowed to preach. Other men 
spent years in the Straits Settlements preparing 
to enter when the gates would open. At the 
close of the first Opium War, in 1842, five 
cities were taken possession of in the name 
of the Lord. These cities were all south of 
the great river. The policy of the government 
was to keep all Europeans and Americans as 
far from Peking as possible. At the close of 
the second war, in i860, other cities were 
opened. The truth is, the whole Empire can 
now be traversed from end to end by the mes- 
sengers of the churches. Missionaries are in 
all the great cities of the Empire. They carry 
on their work in the light of day, and no one 
challenges their right to do so. They are in 
all the eighteen provinces, save one; they are 
in Manchuria and Mongolia; they have built 
homes and schools and churches in the capital, 
right under the shadow of the Forbidden City. 
Treaties provide that the gospel may be 
preached, and that the people may believe and 
obey it with impunity. 



190 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

3. Japan threatened to behead any Chris- 
tian who would invade her territory. Those 
who worked in the Dutch factories were re- 
quired to convince the authorities every year 
that they were not Christians. They were 
called upon to trample a representation of 
Christ on the cross under foot. Rewards were 
offered to any who would inform on their kins- 
men or neighbors. If any of the people were 
driven out to sea, they were not welcomed 
back. Japan wanted to live in absolute isola- 
tion. Devout men thought it would take five 
hundred years to break down that prejudice, 
and to open the gates of Japan to commerce 
and to the gospel. When the fullness of time 
was come, these gates opened as swiftly and as 
silently as the gates of the prison in Jerusalem 
opened to let the apostles out, that they might 
stand and speak in the temple to the people 
all the words of this life. 

4. The East India Company was opposed 
to Christian effort of any kind. They were 
fearful that the presence and services of mis- 
sionaries might stir up strife and cut down 
dividends. One edict says: ''The missionar- 
ies must not preach to natives, nor allow na- 
tive converts to do so.'' All religious publi- 
cations were prohibited. Missionary efforts 



OPEN DOORS. 191 

were declared to be opposed to all sound 
reason and policy; they endangered the peace 
and security of the country. One of the di- 
rectors said he would rather have a band of 
devils in India than a group of missionaries. 
Carey and Marshman and Ward lived in Ser- 
ampore. They were on Danish soil and 
under the protection of the Danish flag Jud- 
son was obliged to fly from the country. 
Rather than return home he went to Bur- 
ma. India is now open to the gospel. Men 
and women are free to go where they please 
and evangelize the peoples The servants of 
Christ have the same right to preach in India 
that they have to preach in the United Sates 
or England. The policy of the government 
is one of neutrality, but many of the ablest 
men in India have been earnest Christians 
and their sympathies have been with the mis- 
sionaries in their work. 

5. Africa was ''a land of thick darkness, 
as darkness itself; a land of the shadow of 
death, without any order and where the light 
was as darkness.'' At the Cape and at the 
mouths of the great rivers cities were founded. 
Something was known of the coast, but al- 
most nothing of the interior. The climate 
was supposed to be deadly. The people were 



192 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

savages. Missionaries sought and found more 
congenial or more fruitful fields elsewhere. In 
recent years Africa has been explored so thor- 
oughly that little remains to be discovered. The 
sources of the Nile and Congo are known. 
The unsalted inland seas have been accurately 
located. Adventurous spirits have gone up all 
the rivers as far as they are navigable. The 
European nations have divided this continent 
among themselves. The peoples are civil and 
teachable. There are no insuperable barriers 
in the way of the evangelization of Africa. 

6. The republics of South and Central 
America are committed to religious toleration. 
The same is true of Mexico. Wherever An- 
glo-Saxon civilization or influence is dominant, 
the gospel has free course. In Siam and Ko- 
rea and Persia men preach, and they are not 
molested Turkey guaranteed religious liberty 
to her subjects, but Turkey has broken her 
covenants. The subject races can do as they 
please; the Moslems confess Christ at their 
peril. Turkish supremacy can not long en- 
dure. If it were not propped up by the Euro- 
pean powers, who are jealous of one another, 
it would not last an hour. All around Thibet 
there are men and women studying the lan- 
guage and the customs of the people and pre- 



PRAYER AND MISSIONS. ' 193 

paring themselves for effective service when 
the walls of this modern Jericho fall down. 
Speaking broadly, the whole earth is open to 
those who bear the message of salvation. 



QUESTIONS. 

What part of the world is open ? What parts are 
closed ? How was it a century ago ? How did China 
feel towards strangers ? When and how was China 
opened ? What do the treaties provide for ? How did 
Japan feel toward Christians ? How did she want to 
live ? Who thwarted her plan ? And how ? Why is 
India open ? Was it always as it is now ? What was 
the attitude of the East India Company? Can men 
and women go anywhere and preach ? Is this right 
one that can be challenged ? What was the condition 
of Africa a century ago ? What was known then ? 
What has happened since ? What about South and 
Central America ? What of Mexico ? What of Siam, 
Korea, Persia ? How does Turkey deal with Moslems ? 
How with the subject races ? What, then, is the pres- 
ent condition of the world as respects religious 
liberty ? 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

PRAYE)R AND MISSIONS. 

I. The early church lived in the atmos- 
phere of prayer. After the ascension of our 
Lord and before the descent of the Spirit, the 

13 



1'94 • HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

disciples in Jerusalem continued steadfastly in 
prayer.^ After Pentecost the believers con- 
tinued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and 
fellowship, in the breaking of bread and 
prayers.^ When Peter was kept in prison, 
prayer was made earnestly of the church unto 
God for him. When he was miraculously 
delivered out of the hand of Herod and from 
all the expectation of the Jews, and went to 
the house of one of the disciples, he found 
many gathered together praying.^ It was 
while Paul was praying in the temple that he 
fell into a trance and saw the Lord and heard 
him say: '* Make haste, and get thee quickly 
out of Jerusalem: because they will not receive 
of thee testimony concerning me/* When 
Paul would argue the question he put an end 
to all controversy by saying, '' Depart: for I 
will send thee forth far hence unto the Gen- 
tiles.'* ^ 

2. The work of missions was begun and 
carried on in prayer. Our Lord said to his 
disciples: '*The harvest truly is plenteous, 
but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore 
the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth 
laborers into his harvest.'* ^ In the prayer 



1. Acts i: 14. 2. Acts ii: 42. 3. Acts xii: 5, 12. 4. Acts xxii: 
17-21. 5. Matt, ix: 37. 38. 



PRAYER AND MISSIONS. 195 

which he taught them he said: " Thy kingdom 
come. Tby will be done, as in heaven, so on 
earth." ^ Before they were to ask for any 
boon for themselves, they were to pray for the 
advancement of the kingdom. There is a 
Jewish proverb like this: '^ He prays not at all 
in whose prayers there is no mention of the 
kingdom of God." It was said of Cornelius 
that he was a man that ''prayed to God 
alway . " ' It was to this prayerful spirit that an 
angel of God was sent to tell him to send to 
Joppa for Simon. Peter was praying on the 
house-top when the messenger of Cornelius 
drew near to the house. ^ On the housetop 
Peter^s prejudices were dislodged, and he un- 
derstood that the gospel was for all mankind. 
Times of earnest and continued prayer are 
times of great missionary activity. Times of 
coldness are times of indiflFerence and inaction. 
3. All successful missionaries are, pre- 
eminently, men of prayer. The apostles said: 
' * We will continue steadfastly in prayer, and 
in the ministry of the word." They left 
others to serve tables. It was said of Paul 
even before his baptism: ''Behold, he pray- 
eth." It was his heart's desire and supplica- 
tion to God that his countrymen might be 

6. Matt, vi: 10. 7. Acts x: 2-16. 8. Acts x: 9, 10. 



196 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

saved. ^ He was willing to be anathema from 
Christ for their sake. All through his Epis- 
tles he pours out his soul to God in the fervor 
and passion of prayer for the people among 
whom he labored. What is true of Paul is 
true of every other effective missionary. 
Gossner sent out 144 missionaries and pro- 
vided for their support. These workers gath- 
ered 30,000 converts. '' He prayed up the 
walls of a hospital and the hearts of the nurses; 
he prayed missionary stations into being and 
missionaries into faith; he prayed open the 
hearts of the rich, and gold from the most dis- 
tant lands.' ' Louis Harms, in thirty one years, 
put 350 missionaries into the field. At the end 
of forty years these missionaries had led 13,000 
heathens to Christ. The church of which 
Harms was minister built and manned a mis- 
sion ship. Most of this flock were farmers ; none 
were rich. Harms says: '* I prayed fervently 
to the lyord, laid the matter in his hand, and 
as I rose up at midnight from my knees, I said 
in a voice that almost startled me in the quiet 
room: ' Forward now, in God's name.' " The 
money needed has always been provided. 
John Hunt's prayer was: '' lyord, save Fiji." 
Livingstone's daily thought was this: '*In all 

9. Rom. x: 1. 



PRAYER AND MlJ>SIONS. 197 

thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall di- 
rect thy paths." In his diaries he wrote: 
"Almighty Father, forgive the sins of the past 
year for thy Son's sake. Help me to work 
more profitably during this year. If I am to 
die this year, prepare me for it." '' My Jesus, 
my King, m}' Life, my All, I again dedicate 
my whole self to Thee. Accept me and grant, 
oh gracious Father, that ere this year is done, 
I may finish m}' task." '^ Let not Satan pre- 
vail over me, ohl m}' good Lord Jesus." He 
died on his knees while praying for Africa. 

4. The cause of missions is helped by 
prayer Paul wrote to the Colossians: '' Con- 
tinue steadfastly in pra^^er, watching therein 
with thanksgiving, withal praying for us also, 
that God may open unto us a door for the 
word, to speak the mystery- of Christ, for which 
I am also in bonds; that I ma^' make it mani- 
fest, as I ought to speak." ^'' Writing to the 
Ephesians he uses similar language He asks 
them to " pray on his behalf, that utterance 
might be given unto him in opening his mouth, 
to make known with boldness the mystery of 
the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in 
chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I 
ought to speak." ^^ Writing to the Romans 

10. Col. iv: 2-4. 11. Eph. vi: 18-20. 



198 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

he beseeches them that they strive together 
with him in their prayers to God for him, that 
he might be delivered from disobedient men, 
and that his ministration which he had for 
Jerusalem might be acceptable to the saints.^ ^ 
No petition comes from the field more fre- 
quently than this : ' ' Pray for us/ ' Dr. Good- 
eil says: '' lyct it be known, too, that more, 
apparently, can be done now by prayer than 
in any other way. Whoever prays most, helps 
most.'^ 

5. Obstacles are taken out of the way in 
answer to prayer. Paul says to the Thessa- 
lonians: *' Finally, brethren, pray for us, that 
the word of the I^ord may run and be glorified, 
even as also it is with you; and that we may 
be delivered from unreasonable and evil men; 
for all men have not faith.'' ^^ In Tahiti the 
first missionaries toiled for fourteen years, and 
saw no fruit. Some of the friends at home 
were disheartened. Others said they would 
sell :.the clothes from their backs before they 
would abandon that fieM. A season of special 
prayer was called for. As a result, letters of 
encouragement were sent. The ship that bore 
these letters met another ship that bore let- 
ters that told of great ingatherings, and that 

12. Rom.xv: 30-32. 13. II. Thess. iii: 1, 2. 



PRAYER AND MISSIONS. 199 

carried as part of her cargo the idols that had 
been surrendered by the converts. Mackay 
speaks of Bang-kah as the Gibraltar of heath- 
enism in North Formosa. On his first visit he 
was jeered at and abused; he was pelted with 
mud and rotten eggs. The house he rented 
was pulled down and the foundations taken 
away. He was threatened and assaulted. Every 
hearer was boycotted. In his distress he called 
upon God, and his prayer was answered. 
Gradually a few became friendly. A sub- 
stantial church was built. Before he left for 
home the head men asked him to sit in a 
sedan chair and be carried in honor through 
the streets. Eight bands of music took the 
lead; men and boys with banners followed; 
scores with squibs and fire-crackers set off 
after the manner of Chinese celebrations. 
Heathen and Chiistian cheered as he boarded 
the launch. 

6. This help is within the reach of all. 
Some can not go out into the field; not many 
can give large amounts; but all can pray. 
We are exhorted to make supplications, pray- 
ers, intercessions, thanksgivings for all men; 
because God wills that all men should be 
saved. ^* We should pray for the converts. 

14. I. Tim. ii: 1, 2. 



200 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

We have a precedent for this in the words: 
*^ To which end we also pray always for you, 
that our God may count you worthy of your 
calling and fulfill every desire of goodness and 
every work of faith with power; that the name 
of our lyord Jesus may be glorified in you, and 
ye in him, according to the grace of our God 
and the Lord Jesus Christ.'* ^^ They have 
many temptations to meet and overcome. Their 
enemies are of their own household. Nothing 
is left undone to corrupt them and to lead 
them away from Christ. We should pray for 
them, that their love may abound yet more 
and more in knowledge and all discernment; 
so that they may approve the things that are 
excellent; that they may be sincere and void 
of offence unto the day of Christ, being filled 
with the fruits of righteousness, which are 
through Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise 
of God. ^^ 

7 . God has heard and answered the prayers 
of his people. It was not long after the Church 
of England began to pray for the spread of the 
gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable 
globe, that William Carey appeared on the 
scene. Soon after that group of young men at 
Williams College began to pray under the hay- 

15. II. Thes. i: 11, 12. 16. Phil, i: 9-11. 



PRAYER AND MISSIONS. 201 

Stack, the American Board and the American 
Bible Society were born. In the year 1872 
the Church Missionary Society prayed for 
more men to go out. That very year one 
hundred university men signified their desire 
to devote their lives to work in foreign 
fields. In answer to prayer $675,000 was paid 
in to relieve that same Society of debt, and 
$750,000 more for the extension of its work. 
The China Inland Mission prayed for one 
hundred men, and they were given. A few 
large sums were asked for to pay their travel- 
ing expenses and to support them, and they 
were forthcoming. God honors them that 
honor Him with their confidence. It is now 
as it was in the ancient days. The supplica- 
tion of a righteous man availeth much in its 
working. Elijah was a man of like passions 
with us, and he prayed fervently that it might 
not rain; and it rained not on the earth for 
three years and six months. And he prayed 
again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth 
brought forth her fruit. ^' John Foster said: 
' ' When I shall see Christians all over the 
world resolved to prove what shall be the effi- 
ciency of prayer for the conversion of the 



17. James v: 16-18. 



202 HAND-BOOK ON MISSIONS. 

world, I shall begin to think that the millen- 
nium is at the door/' 



QUESTIONS. 

What evidences are there that the early church 
was given to prayer ? What did our Lord say about 
the harvest ? For what were the disciples to pray ? 
What connection is there between prayer and mis- 
sions ? What are successful missionaries specially 
noted for ? What about Paul ? Gossner ? Harms ? 
Livingstone ? How may prayer aid missions ? What 
obstacles may be taken out of the way ? How has 
God answered prayer in Tahiti ? In Formosa ? Who 
can help in this way ? For whom should prayer be 
made ? How has God honored those that put their 
trust in him ? 



A Brief Bibliography. 



A Cycle of Cathay. Marti7i f 2 00 

Among the Cannibals in New Guinea. MacParla?id 1 25 

Among the Turks. Hamlin 1 50 

An American Missionary in Japan. Gordon 1 25 

A Peep into a Chinaman's Library. Ware 50 

Around the World Tour of Christian Missions. Bainhridge 2 00 

Bishop's Conversion. Maxxvell 1 50 

Brahmanism and Hinduism. Williams 4 50 

Buddhism. Davids 1 00 

Canoe and Dog- Train. Yotuig 125 

Carey. Meyers 75 

China. Gracey , .. 15 

China and the Chinese. Nevius 1 50 

Chinese Characteristics. Smith 2 00 

Christless Nations. Thohurji 1 25 

Confucianism and Taoism. Douglass 1 00 

Crisis of Missions. Pierson 1 25 

Cross and the Dragon. Henry 150 

Cross in the Land of the Trident. Beach 40 

Dragon, Image and Demon. Diibose 2 00 

Duff, Alexander. Smith 3 00 

Encyclopedia of Missions. Bliss 12 00 

Eschol. Humphrey 75 

Evangelist Shi. Hu7it 10 

Evangelization of the World. Broomhall 1 50 

Foreign Missions after a Century. Dennis 150 

Forty Years among the Zulus. Tyler 125 

From Far Formosa. Mackay 2 00 

Gilmour, James 1 75 

Gist. Gracey 60 

Great Value and Success of Foreign Missions. Liggi7is 75 



A Brief Bibliography— Continued. 



Greatest Work in the World. Pierson 15 

Hannnigton, James. Dazvson 1 00 

High-Caste Hindu Woman. Ramahai 35 

India and Malaysia. Thobtirfi 1 50 

In the Tiger Jungle. Chamberlain 1 00 

Judson, Adoniram. Judso7i 150 

Korea, Without and Within. Griffis 1 15 

Life in Hawaii. Coaii 1 75 

Livingstone. Blaikie. 1 50 

Mackay, Alexander M 1 50 

McKenzie, John K. Bryson 1 50 

Martyn, Henry, '^niith 2 00 

Medical Missions. Lowe 150 

Mexico ; Past and Present. Jolinson 1 50 

Mikado's Empire. Griffis 4 00 

Missionary Addresses. McLean 1 00 

Missionary Enterprise in the South Sea Islands. Williams. . 1 25 

Missions in the East Laxvrence 175 

Missionary Stories in Many Lands. A. B, C. F. M. 1 25 

Mission Work ; Organization and Methods, Bliss 15 

Moffat, Robert and Mary. By their Son 2 00 

Moravian Missions. Thompson 2 00 

Morning Light in Many Lands. March. 2 00 

Morrison, Robert. Tozvnsend 75 

Murdered Millions. Dowko7itt 15 

Neesima, Joseph Hardy. Hardy 2 00 

Neglected Continent, Gninness 00 

New Acts of the Apostles. Pierso7i 1 50 

New World of Central Africa. Guinness 2 00 

Non-Christian Religions of the Age 1 00 

Paton, John G 2 00 

Religions of China. Legge 150 

Religions of Japan. Griffis 2 00 

Short History of Christian Missions. Smith 1 00 

Story of Uganda. Stock 1 25 



A Brief Bibliograpby— Continued. 



studies in Acts. Lhamon 1 25 

Student Missionary Enterprise 1 50 

The Koran. Muir 1 00 

Things Japanese. Chamberlain 3 50 

Tropical Africa. Drtimmond 25 

Women of the Arabs. Jessnp 1 25 

"Woman in Missions 75 

World's Missionary Conference Report 2 00 

Young Folk's History of China. Ctinningham 100 



NOTE. — The Christian Publishing Co., St. Louis, Mo., and The Standard 
Publishing Co., Cincinnati, 0., can supply the above books. 



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